100mph

Take Me Back to Tulsa!

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Mon, 15 Feb 2021 18:36:00 +0000

A couple good friends I've known almost as long as I've lived in New York are visiting Tulsa en route to LA next month. I'm so excited for them I can hardly stand it, and I got a little carried away outlining for them about the sites, restaurants, and hotels.

So I figure why not share with you, too?

If you've never been, or live there and haven't been to these places, here's my quick and dirty overview of the must-sees in Tulsa, in my humble opinion:

One day in Tulsa - The three places you must visit, in order:

Philbrook (2727 S. Rockford Rd - just east of Peoria on 27th st.)
The Gathering Place (~30th and Riverside Dr.)
Stroll in and around the Guthrie Green just north of downtown

Walk up to The Center of the Universe

Every place I'm recommending you see - aside from The Golden Driller and the ORU campus - is in or near downtown or just southeast in Midtown. The city goes on and on, but the unique places to Tulsa that make it the jewel of Oklahoma are confined in a small geographic area.

Tulsa's History

Oil Capital of the World - Thomas Gilcrease / Frank and Waite Phillips / Josh Cosden / J. Paul Getty / George Kaiser. Standing in the Gathering Place (funded by Kaiser), you'll see:

West of the river - the refineries; where the money was made;
Downtown - where it was administered; and
Midtown (Riverside Dr. to the West, Harvard Ave. to the East, 21st to the South and 31st to the North) - where much of it was spent (with Dad's help!)

The Maple Ridge neighborhood - which puts Scarsdale to shame.

Drive south down Woodward starting at 21st street and Madison between Riverside Drive and Peoria.

Many of these houses Dad worked on at some point - especially the Skelly Mansion at the corner of 21st and Madison.
You'll pass my childhood home on the corner of 26th street.
Woodward then lets you out on Peoria. Turn right and an immediate left onto 27th street and take that east all the way to Lewis Ave. (Philbrook is on 27th and Rockford - one block east of Peoria)
After crossing Utica (on Terwilleger Blvd.), you'll be on Forest Blvd. Take in the houses, though the whole area is full of gorgeous homes largely built in the roaring '20s.

Of note is Henry Kravis's brother George's house (Dad worked on it for 12 years before finally firing George in frustration.) It's hard to see from the street, though.

Afterward, head a few blocks over toward Utica Square and have a walk around.

Queenie's is a charming cafe just a few doors down from the Starbucks.
And pop in to The Snow Goose and tell Jan and Ellen "hi" from the Campbells. It's the cleverest little shop you'll ever visit!

Philbrook - one of the most beautiful homes in America was converted into a museum in 1938.

It's an Italianate villa built in 1927 using modern construction techniques. CALL ME when you're en route, and I'll give you a 10-minute overview.
My family has deep connections with the place, and Dad's fingerprints are everywhere - particularly in the villa.
Waite Phillips - my childhood hero - famously said "The only things we keep permanently are the things we give away." As the museum can attest, he was right.

Perhaps his greatest gift was the Philmont ranch to the Boy Scouts of America - a substantial chunk of New Mexico. There's a painting of it on the wall of the Santa Fe Room on the ground floor.
To endow Philmont, he also gave the Boy Scouts his gothic revival Philtower - Tulsa's first true skyscraper. And then the art deco Philcade - likewise to endow Philbrook. You can and should walk their lobbies at 5th and Boston downtown. They're across the street from each other. When Phillips gave away his house, they lived in the Penthouse of the Philcade.

Gilcrease - the best collection of Western Art in the world.

Dad was also on the board, though we never had close to the same affection to the place and collection that we do to Philbrook. That said, the tiny percentage of art they have displayed (they're in the process of planning and building a new building to display their vast collection) is astonishing.
Long story short - and you can learn more about it while you're there - Thomas Gilcrease was a native American allotted a section of land that turned out to be atop the Glenn Pool, the largest oil reserve ever discovered at the time. Possessing an ungodly amount of money, and seeing that other rich people were paying through the nose for European old masters, he realized that he could acquire equally-important American art for a song. So he bought ALL of it.

Greenwood - the site of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Black Wall Street - the most prosperous neighborhood for black people in America at the time was completely destroyed and hundreds were slaughtered because of senseless racist rage on the part of white folk. Growing up, I never heard about it... I can't imagine you haven't heard about it now, as I think Tulsa is known today for this above all else, tragically. Greenwood is a lovely neighborhood walking distance from the Guthrie Green. Please support the businesses there.

BOK Center - site of the infamous Trump Rally last year, designed by Cesar Pelli.

Are you "The Outsiders" fans? -

You can actually go see the House, the Admiral Twin drive-in, and other spots where they shot the movie. If you're not, don't worry about it. The house is in a rough neighborhood, northeast of downtown.

Restaurants

Brookside

It's located on Peoria from ~33rd to 36th streets.
Cafe Ole - great place for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Been going there 35 years.. Also, Dad designed the shopping center it's in the late '80s. Go check out M.A. Doran gallery and Aberson's and a few of the shops nearby.
Torchy's Tacos - is our cafeteria while in town. I can not get enough! Neither can the girls. Plus, it's cheap and easy.

Cherry Street

It's located on 15th street between Peoria and Utica.
You'll find dozens of restaurants along this stretch ranging from Chipotle to Smoke. We've been going to Chimi's forever, but that's more nostalgia than fine dining..

Mother Road Market

It's located on 11th and Lewis.
Our other cafeteria while in town. Chicken and the Wolf is great (and spicy), but I typically go to Bodhi's Bowl or Radish.

The best restaurant in Tulsa is arguably The Polo Grill in Utica Square.

Dad's former colleague recently completed a renovation there.

Also, the breweries!

Many of them nationally recognized and well-respected.
Whether you like beer or not, American Solera is worth a stop...just to see the space alone.
I went to school with the Marshall boys, and we have them to thank for the brewery craze.
If you're interested, let me know - as there's a lot to know. My fav is Dead Armadillo. All are in or near downtown (in the Pearl District).

Near Guthrie Green, in the Tulsa Arts District

You'll find vegan-friendly restaurants like Chimera and Antoinette’s for dessert.

I can keep going, but I'll stop there.

Oh - I can't not mention burgers!

If you want a good burger, there's Claud's or Weber's across the street, Ron's, and countless others.

Architecture

Downtown - Boston Ave.

Philtower/Philcade (5th and Boston). The Philtower has the multi-colored pyramid-shaped roof. It dominated the skyline for decades, now it's just quaint. I discussed this above under Philbrook.
The Mid-Continent Tower (4th and Boston, with the green copper roof), built by real-life Jay Gatsby - "Prince of Petroleum" Josh Cosden - in 1918, in the '80s Reading & Bates decided to build a 20-story tower ON TOP OF the original building. Since it couldn't support the weight of the tower, they cantilevered it OVER the the original Cosden building. Amazing. Gorgeous, too.
The BOK tower (a half-scale version of the Twin Towers, also designed by Minoro Yamasaki in the early '70s)
I could go on, but I'll stop there.

Art Deco

After Miami, Tulsa has the most art deco of any American city. The must-see is the Bruce Goff-designed Boston Ave. Methodist Church on Boston Ave at 13th street. It's one of a kind.
We toured the place again a couple years ago, and I photographed the interior if you want to see it (it's featured in the August segment of my 2019 year in review movie - starting around 21:20, which has a ton of great Tulsa imagery if you didn't see it.)

Philbrook and Maple Ridge oil boom mansions

Discussed above

ORU campus

Do y'all know who Oral Roberts was?
He created "televangelizing," "the prosperity gospel," and remains hugely controversial and influential.
It's out south a good 5 or so miles (~81st and Lewis) from everywhere else I recommended, but the Praying Hands, Prayer Tower, City of Faith (the 60-story hospital a 900-foot Jesus told him to build) have to be seen to be believed. It's like a Ken Adam set from a '70s Bond flick!

Music

If you're a Woody Guthrie fan, it's worth seeing the Woody Guthrie Center.

Feel the Bern! This 2016 photo of Bernie crossing the street in front of Woody's mural is - in my mind at least - iconic.

The same treatment will be applied next door to Bob Dylan's archive, purchased a few years back by Dylan's friend George Kaiser.
The Church - Leon Russell's studio. It's been through a major overhaul. I wonder if it's open yet? It's in The Pearl District just east of downtown at 3rd and Trenton.
Cain's Ballroom - it's a legendary music venue. Even if you don't see a show, it's neat to see the stars on the sidewalk out front, and it's just a couple blocks north of the Guthrie Green.

Sid Vicious infamously punched a hole in the wall before performing there back in the day.

Hotels

The Mayo Hotel - J. Paul Getty lived here, to give you an idea of its history. After the Hotel Tulsa closed, the Mayo become the place where oilmen went to make deals. The New York Stock Exchange was small potatoes, relatively speaking..
Tulsa Club - FLW protege Bruce Goff designed it, they poured million and millions renovating it a few years ago, and I think it looks awful.
The Ambassador - The Chalkboard is a good restaurant, and I understand the hotel is nice, though I've never stayed there.
Harwelden - Stay in a Tudor mansion? When we were kids, we used to sled down the hill when it snowed!
AirBnb options abound, too

The Golden Driller

Finally, I mentioned the Golden Driller previously, a curiosity that has to be seen to be believed. It's located ~3 miles east of Utica Square on 21st street.

2015 New York Auto Show

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 19:50:00 +0000

"A big kid in a really big candy store"

I've attended the New York International Auto Show now for 13 consecutive years, and in that time the industry has had its ups and downs, to say the least. Today was a high point. Truly, we have access to some astonishingly good cars these days.

You can read my point of view below, or you can simply listen to my off-the-cuff remarks in this 7-minute video on my YouTube channel here:

Thinking back to my first New York Auto Show in 2003, back then Detroit’s entrants were showing their age, reflecting years of chronic underinvestment in their product line. And then in the financial collapse of 2009, they were almost wiped out, and certainly didn’t have anything snazzy to show us here in New York then. And yet today, amazingly, Detroit has retooled, and the American Big 3 that almost went bust have come back with a vengeance. Detroit's line-up is the best its been in my lifetime, which is great to see.

The German marques have continued to lead the market, specifically relating to performance and technology.

Without question, the top draws of the show were BMW and Mercedes-Benz, as they have the broadest, best looking, most advanced, and most powerful product portfolios. On the BMW side, the i8 stole the show, though people were drawn to the Alpina B6 and M4. At Mercedes-Benz, the S-Class was off-limits but in a class of it’s own. People flocked to the AMG models, especially the AMG GT.

Audi and Porsche’s product line felt tired at the show, even though Porsche is among the best and most profitable (sports) car companies, and Audi emerged from underdog status 13 years ago to become the solid #3 in the sports/luxury segment.

The British marques, Jaguar and Range Rover are giving compelling alternatives to the German marques. Jaguar’s F-Type is fantastic, and if you like off-roading I suppose Range Rover’s are nice, too.

Looking back 20 years to 1995, the most capable sports sedan engines produced a whopping 200-250 horsepower under the hood.

Going back 10 years to 2005, the top performers had up to 400 horsepower.

Today, most of the marques serious about performance have at least one model that puts out 600 horsepower! The Dodge Hellcat has over 700 horsepower!

It’s madness. Wonderful madness, which unfortunately denies the realities we’re facing with CO2 emissions and all that..

Toyota is doing interesting things, for instance, with fuel cell propulsion, and their racing cars are impressive and true contenders with the Germans. Meanwhile, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan continue to do what they do well - satisfying the mass market with solid products, and investing in hybrid and fuel cell technology, which is exactly what they should be doing.

Mazda continues to be a compelling underdog, but they've never been able to hit the mainstream the way other Japanese brands have.

Tesla was absent, as was MINI. Fiat and Alfa-Romeo are giving it a go again in the States, which I suppose gives American buyers stylish alternatives to the crowd.

Ferrari was notably absent. Aston Martin, Maserati, Rolls-Royce, and McLaren had their product lines out and looking great, with throngs of people around.

There were trucks and sensible cars, too, but I only had two hours, and I used all of them up on the stuff I wanted to see, though I did cover the entire floor - walking 12,000 steps or 6.4 miles in the process!

#NYIAS

The history of advertising, the battle for our attention, and the Digital Age of Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sun, 16 Mar 2014 04:23:00 +0000

"You’re more likely to survive a plane crash than click a banner ad."

"In 1993, the entire internet had 5 million users - or 0.45% of Facebook’s current user base."

"Google's Eric Schmidt cites that 'Every 2 days, we create as much information as we did from the dawn of civilization up until 2003.'"

Since reading this presentation (and beginning to draft this blog post) last summer, I've thought back on it many times - and thought how valuable an educational resource it is for anyone interested in advertising and brand marketing. It brings us in-depth perspective on what's transpired, what we've learned, what's stayed the same, and what we've learned through it all.

While the whole slideshow is well worth reading, at 472 slides I figured I'd call out the most recent developments in advertising history, somewhat biased by HubSpot's goal of promoting its value. Highlights include:

The Digital Age (circa 2000), which starts at slide 367.
Inbound Marketing review starts at slide 395.
"Market with a magnet, not a sledgehammer", on slide 400.
The Constant Content Span (2011-2013), on slide 413.
Native Advertising explained and example shown, on slide 416-417.
Visual Content rises, due to proliferation of content on slides 419, 421 & 422.
While people may never have time for SPAM, or shouty marketing messaging, they do have time for a good story, on slide 427.
2011 to present recap, on slide 428.
Media proliferation and ad messaging volume starting on slide 431
The most telling slide of all - the timeline - is on slide 434.
Information pollution means people have the power over where their attention goes, not marketers - on slide 449.
The new era - creating marketing people love - on slides 451-469.

For all 472 slides, check them out here:

The Evolution of Advertising: How Consumers Won the War for Their Attention from HubSpot

Left to my own devices

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Mon, 24 Jun 2013 18:14:00 +0000

Thanks to my amazing wife, I was able to take one day - from 7am to 9pm yesterday - to head out and explore. I've sought out trips like these as long as I've had my driver's license. There's just something about the freedom of the open road.

Given our days in Queens are numbered (we're moving to Westchester County in a few months), I figured there's no time like the present to head out east toward the Hamptons- as getting there will soon require another 90 minutes roundtrip.

Plugged in as I tend to be with my gadgets, I wanted to capture the day's trip as best as I could without distracting myself from the experience. I decided to use Vine as the hub. I'm glad to have done it, as I think Vine is a terrific way to capture places and events with a few (perhaps disjointed) clips - especially if your friends are Vine users. Given all the information being thrown at us these days - and our resulting inability to process much of anything more than bite-sized chunks of content - it's approach is a smart solution for the times.

Posting on Vine is easy. All that's required to capture a clip is pressing the screen on your smartphone. Then you capture as much as you choose, as long as it's within 7 seconds.

Starting with my first walk on the beach in Southampton at 9:30am, followed by a few seconds of the drive out to Sag Harbor, I was able to capture the feeling of "being there" that a photo never could.

When I got to Sag Harbor late morning, I took pictures and captured a few 7-second videos. Through the short clips I took over the course of the day, I was able to capture the feel for a place that, say, a high-resolution, professional-quality photo taken with a SLR simply couldn't. It's also easier; you simply pull out your phone, and press to go.

Relying heavily on Google Maps and Foursquare to get me where I was going, compounded with the use of Vine and Instagram to capture the highlights, my iPhone 5 battery was completely drained by early afternoon. Upon getting it charged back up a couple hours later, I headed to Jones Beach, where I captured some nice clips of dusk on the beach as well as the setting sun.

Eager to share my adventure with friends and family, I quickly realized that only a handful are on Vine - or even know what it is, for that matter. And, unsurprisingly, Vine does not make it easy to share the videos anywhere but the Vine app or Twitter (the integration with Facebook is poor). Given that my network on Twitter is very different (more professional, less personal) than my network on Facebook, this made it difficult to share the adventure with my Facebook network. Unfortunately, I'd already deleted the videos from my phone before realizing this!

So what to do? How, given most people's comfort level with online sites, is the best way to share my trip out east? In the end, YouTube provided the platform to tell this story, as I was able to organize a playlist with the videos I have on my YouTube channel (they are easy to set up if you are have a Google account (i.e., if you're a Gmail user).

On my YouTube channel playlists, I can post or remove videos as I like - making it easier to stay organized and share the highlights with friends and family - but the messaging for content I'm not sharing publicly is a poor user experience, I think. Why not simply show only the videos posted as "public" instead of such a foreboding message (below)?

Given YouTube's connection to one of the most powerful search engines, anyone else looking to head out east or who also enjoy M-BMWs can take a look at the clips, too. And perhaps most importantly to me, it's available anytime I feel like re-living one of the best days I've had in a long time.

And then, of course, to tie the story together, I'm blogging about it here. Though like many I'm swallowed up by Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others, blogging remains as important as ever at tying digital channels together.

Enjoy your summer.

The Startup of You

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 21:20:00 +0000

I stumbled upon a visual presentation chock full of brilliant advice from LinkedIn's co-founder Reid Hoffman and an entrepreneur friend of his, Ben Casnocha - underscoring how to adapt to constant change, the practical value of LinkedIn, as well as the importance networking. For an introvert like me, it's good advice. And inspiring and helpful. I thought it might be for you as well, yet at 190 slides it's tough to justify the time. So I grabbed a few slides that stuck out to me and have included them below. If you want to see the whole slide show - which I recommend - check it out here. Or you can just buy the book: "The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career."

The key elements:

To be successful, you have to balance these three things:
1. Assets - what's going for you.
2. Aspiration - what you might like to do.
3. Market Realities - what people will pay you to do.

Best to pick an uncrowded, or under-served, niche:

This is a big one for me. I like to think things through... a lot. But situations are constantly changing, and it's best to try, test, and tweak. I've learned this all too well in the startup world first-hand:

This is a big one for most folks. They're looking for the "low-hanging" fruit. But sometimes they mistake what low-hanging fruit is. Always be learning. Always be sharing. Always be helping. It also means you'll be happier, and people will want to work with you - and won't mind paying. The cold-hard cash comes with helping others succeed, which then presents the real low-hanging fruit:

Perhaps the best advice I ever received was: "you can't do it alone". People are your gateway for gut-checks, knowledge, perspective and help. We all have different strengths. Tapping into a network of people with different strengths makes the value of the sum greater than its parts:

These speak for themselves:

And alas, the ultimate value of LinkedIn, and social networking for business:

So, tap into your network. Help them, and let them help you:

Your career won't advance in a linear fashion. It really happens in spurts, so don't sweat the day-to-day:

Invest your time in people - the real gateway to your future:

If you're in the doldrums, it's actually a blessing in disguise to assess your situation and pivot:

People are often scared to take risks. While understandable, the problem with that is if you don't take chances, you'll do what everybody else is doing, you won't stand out, and the competition will make it virually impossible for you to profit:

So you have to intelligently assess risks, and act:

And then you might stumble upon something no one else has:

And...

Some advice from Bill Gates:

Good luck!

Announcing Qnary – empowering people to realize their digital potential

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 14:42:00 +0000

Six and a half months ago, I enthusiastically joined one of my favorite people in the digital media industry – Bant Breen – to help him build Qnary into the transformative company it’s quickly becoming. While we’ve had our hands full developing our strategy, building our team, and executing I'm elated today to announce publicly the exciting work we’re doing.

The evidence (look no further than our Facebook feed here or our blog here for examples) is all around us; culturally and economically, we’ve gone digital. It is and will continue to be a driving force of many aspects of our lives.

When you are looking for someone today, do you go to the yellow pages? Or do you go to Google, or LinkedIn, or Facebook? Online impressions matter.

With the explosion of digital and social media, people – not just marketers and publishers – are now active, public, identifiable, and influential. Just as marketers and publishers are brands, now people are brands too. Given this new reality, for the first time everyone must think about their reputation online – their digital footprint.

While some may find this new reality overwhelming, many of us see at as an opportunity – to improve our reputation, to expand our influence, to make new connections, to learn something or meet someone we otherwise couldn’t, and grow our business in the process. All these things are very possible if you have the right social digital channels set up to your benefit.

Over the last few months, I’ve spoken with hundreds of people across walks of life about their digital identity. What I hear again and again is that they are overwhelmed with social networking sites, tools and gadgets, and lack the understanding of how the web connects people together. Because it’s complicated, they struggle to understand how they can use digital media to their considerable benefit. There's an enormous opportunity to show people, to empower them to take control of their presence online. In a nutshell, to me, that’s what Qnary is about.

At Qnary, we decided to address this acute need, taking all the insight our incredibly talented team has developed over the years to apply what we’ve learned about digital media for brand marketers – and apply it to benefit the individual.

Qnary has two complimentary divisions:
1. Qnary Platform (moving from private beta to public beta today), which enables users to see, shape and benefit from their digital profile.

2. Qnary Managed Services (we began bringing on clients in May, and we have over 200 now), which enables people who have good reason to care how they appear online to benefit from the tool suite without the hassle of learning best practices and doing the legwork of setting up their profiles.

Qnary Services clients include CEOs, doctors, lawyers, salespeople, consultants, authors, students, and the list goes on. Beyond optimization, we've been challenging ourselves to tell each client's unique story - and in the process connecting the dots across the web.

CFR Chairman Jack Allen is one of the most dynamic people I’ve had the pleasure to know. Video is clearly the best way to see his natural talents come alive, and so we were able to match the medium (YouTube, in this case) to suit Jack’s natural strengths – and connect his digital identity to it through all the other key online channels (including Facebook).

People are looking for answers about life's most critical challenges, and psychotherapist and life coach David Leifeste has them – which paves the way toward new client relationships for him. Thrilled clients can recommend him in a public place on his Facebook Page, and he can answer common questions on his Quora profile – questions likely to rank high on Google search results for people searching but have never had occasion to meet David.

If you'd like to learn more about what we're up to, visit Qnary.com and register. Want us to do the work for you, take a look at Qnary Managed Services and speak work with one of our consultants.

The state of the web, and how it's changing the way we live

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 03:40:00 +0000

If you haven't heard of her, Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist Mary Meeker is well known as one of the smartest analysts on all-things digital. Spend some time with Meeker's 2012 annual presentation here, and you'll begin to understand our economy's future.

At 112 slides, unfortunately I don't expect everyone will want to flip through the presentation she gave at the All Things D conference recently. With that in mind, I've captured highlights in screenshots below and encourage anyone interested - in understanding the changes we've seen in recent years, what they mean, and their implications for the future - to take in the details of Meeker's presentation.

First, a few highlights calling out some of the massive changes we've seen in recent years:
Below, as much as the iPod revolutionized the way we listen to music, and the iPhone revolutionized how we interact with each other and the web - the iPad has changed the game, again, completely. The truth is, we have yet to fully experience what the rise of tablets means. We will. Count on that.

I got my first smartphone - a BlackBerry - in 2008, and suddenly all that time I used to waste commuting on the subway became the most productive two hours of my day. Then in 2010 I got an iPhone 4, and then I had the ability to publish and consume content from anywhere, anytime, and on any channel. Smartphones are incredibly empowering. They're also more affordable than a desktop (only $200 with a carrier contract), and in just a few years potentially 6 times as many people will have them. Which means just about everybody will have this access and publishing ability, and the implications of that are nothing short of mind boggling.

3 out of 10 American adults have a tablet, which means nearly one-third of American adults have a tool that not only connects them to the internet and all the social channels that come with internet access - but they also have the ability to take pictures, shoot videos, write and publish for the whole world to see! Contrast this with, say, 10 years ago when only major publishers and media companies controlled all the content we consumed.

Ten percent of all global internet traffic is mobile. In the U.S., it's 20%. And that's only going to grow - dramatically, especially as people realize the utility the mobile internet brings them. Now, using the mobile web, a decision over where we're going or what we're doing no longer has to be made before we leave our home or office. We can look anyone or anything up anywhere, which frees us from all sorts of inefficiencies. Remember sitting by the phone (plugged into a wall) waiting for a phone call? You'll never do that again!

As much music as many of us download from iTunes, the volume pales in comparison to the 46 million apps we download every day for our Macs, iPhone and iPads - apps that improve the way do everything from listening to music, to socializing with friends, to improving our productivity. Without apps, all these devices would just be hardware. With apps, all the tools included in those devices enable us to create and consume a bewildering array of things inconceivable just 5 years ago.

So what do all of these new gadgets - and the capabilities they bring us - mean, practically? It means we now can and must re-imagine and improve just about everything we do. And this is where things get particularly exciting, as it's becomes abundantly clear that the economic opportunities ahead of us are staggering.

Re-imaging computing devices is obvious. I referred to my MacBook Air the other day as "my computer", and I laughed at myself. Which computer?

I've played an active role in the business of social media for over 4 years now. Though the opportunity was exciting then, only a few early adopter businesses were jumping in. Now, connectivity between people and businesses has become the norm, an essential for any business that wants to remain relevant to its customers. It's all happened so fast. The good news is, opportunities for entrepreneurs have never been better. With all these devices, tools, and connections - the future for business is wide open.

The way people share their lives has permanently changed. Will biographies be written in the future, or will aggregators simply organize the key milestones in a person's well-documented life through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, blogs, etc?

Do you remember "The Miracle on the Hudson" - when the U.S. Airways jet crashed into the Hudson River in 2009? How did you find out? Perhaps Twitter or Facebook, but definitely not the newspaper that couldn't make it off the presses until the day after the crash happened. Did you find out from a reporter, or did word simply spread from the thousands of people on the west side of Manhattan who saw the crash happen with their own eyes - and reported on the event instinctively?

Anyone who has hung out with me in the last year has heard me rave about Evernote and how it's changed my life - making me more organized and cutting the time it took to stay organized to a fraction of what it used to be. It also syncs from my laptop to my iPhone and to my iPad automatically - enabling me to take my files wherever I go, regardless of the device. And no, I almost never use Microsoft Word anymore. Why would I?

Watching my wife become a prolific user of Instagram (@thatvalerie) has been fascinating. With her iPhone, she captures a fascinating point of view of New York City - a side of the city most of us pass by everyday without ever seeing. Her work is art - an art form that would not have been possible for a busy lawyer and mother of two.

While many of us never scrapbooked, millions of us (including me) spend hours every month on Pinterest. Why? An image is worth a thousand words, and we're all overwhelmed with text.

The list goes on... Below Meeker covers the re-imagination of magazines (on tablets), books (on e-readers), music (cloud-based services like Spotify and Pandora), and video (4 billion views PER DAY on YouTube).

The way we do business has changed, too. Yellow pages and coupons have evolved (through the internet we've evolved from local to global, even in the local community), cash registers are no longer necessary when you have the right app on a tablet, and marketplaces are oftentimes better virtual than not.

Did you know that 93% of recruiters look candidates up on LinkedIn, and make hiring decisions based on what they see?

When I got into the advertising business, marketers applied a mass approach to marketing themselves. The only way they could reach their audience was to blanket the territory with ads - with most of those messages wasted on people who had no use for what the marketer was selling. Today, through the internet, it's possible for a marketer (particularly a niche marketer with a very specific customer) to find their true audience - and only communicate with them - a far more efficient and effective method for both sides.

As a consequence of these increased efficiencies, marketers can now afford to invest in building relationships with their audience - showering them with rewards for their loyalty. We've only seen the tip of the iceberg for this approach, yet it's clearly the future in marketing - and digital media has made this new approach possible.

For all that the American economy is going through an ugly transition that's hurting a lot of people, the opportunities have never been better for individuals and companies willing to take all the changes and look for ways to do things better. We live in a very, very exciting time.

How Owned, Earned, and Paid media work together

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 04:29:00 +0000

I've found the annual SoDA (Society of Digital Agencies) Digital Marketing Outlook report to deliver groundbreaking insight (my blog post on their 2010 report here), so I was excited to take a peek at the 2012 version when it arrived in my inbox today. While this year's 96-page report was interesting and worth a read - especially from the brand marketer's perspective - it wasn't quite groundbreaking. Yet it has some great nuggets.

The survey covered on pages 10-14 was conducted by SoDA in partnership with Econsultancy, and gathered the opinions of nearly 700 marketers, agencies, technologists and digital industry insiders.

The study discussed several interesting trends, yet nearest to the challenges I'm running into, they do a terrific job of breaking out in order of magnitude the marketing elements of Earned Media, Owned Media and Paid Media Channels.

Used as a planning tool, these graphics should help any marketer keep in perspective where their audience is today - and the full scope of what they should be considering within the digital media ecosystem.

I captured screenshots of those graphics below:

Steve Jobs, and why we need to be perfectionists

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:01:00 +0000

I finished the Steve Jobs book this morning - the first book I got around to finishing in years. Not that I don't read. I read constantly, it's just tough to justify reading a thick book cover to cover these days. Except this one.

It's worth noting that this is my third blog entry about Jobs. The first post was about his 2005 Stanford commencement speech and the second post was about his legacy - just before he died last year. Given the work I do, the things I like to think about, and the topics I generally discuss through social media (Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube), I suppose it makes sense I'd feel compelled to say so much about this one person. Especially when you stop to consider his tremendous contribution to modern life.

At nearly 700 pages, I still found myself wishing for more detail. Reading this book was like reading the history of everything in technology that's happened over the course of my lifetime. It also brought back memories and added perspective to my own observations.

I don't feel there's any need to discuss the book itself here, or outline in detail his contributions, as that's been done well so many times already (here, here, here, and here are a few good ones).

Steve Jobs was a visionary and a genius. He envisioned and understood things before anyone else. And then he went about executing his vision flawlessly - inspiring countless people to follow and help him achieve his vision.

Jobs radically changed business - and the way we live - introducing personal computing (Apple in the '70s, Macintosh in the '80s and beyond), transforming digital animation (Pixar), enabling music to be portable (iPod and iTunes), enabling mobile devices for the masses to do amazing things (iPhone and iPad) by being pushing well beyond reason for perfection. And demanding the same commitment from others.

The key takeaway I got from the book is that perfectionism truly matters. Everywhere we go and everything we do demands compromise. It's nearly impossible to avoid the trap. And here's someone who outright refused to give an inch. And the products his company made were, as a result, extraordinary - and incredibly innovative.

I don't like to compromise. And I'm a bit of a perfectionist, too. Yet the reality is anytime I try to get something accomplished, an important element of a program I'm working on is getting compromised, someone is asking for my thinking and perspective, or someone important to me (usually it's one of my kids) wants something from me. I'm sure many can relate to these constant challenges. All of this takes quite a lot of time and effort, yet there are only 24 hours in a day, so I can't reasonably afford to be a perfectionist.

Yet at the same time - as this book reminded me - I have to be. We should all demand more of ourselves and each other. But first, we have to demand it from ourselves. Somehow we have to find that extra inch to push ourselves - and each other - just a little harder. That extra push is what makes the difference between the status quo and something truly special.

Steve Jobs was a perfectionist. And he was right. It's important to understand the difference between merely good and extraordinary - and push for it. Caring enough to put in the extra effort is the only way to build anything that matters.

The times are a changin’

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:54:00 +0000

With the wave of recent articles about the new economy, the decline of American manufacturing, and the ripple effects these changes are causing, I began reflecting on the dramatic changes in my own career over just the past few years - and how it's probably not all that unusual.

What I did/do for a living:

2005 – Traditional Advertising
2006 – Display Advertising
2007 – Google Optimization
2008 – Facebook "App-vertising"
2009 – Facebook Marketing
2010 – Social Media Marketing
2011 – Social Listening
2012 – Inbound Marketing

The world moves fast these days, doesn’t it?

Inbound Marketing, today's marketing model

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:19:00 +0000

The massive upgrade Google gave to Google+ just this week - along with the ongoing evolution we're seeing through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, as well as millions of blogs, forums and other online communities discussing every conceivable topic - are forcing a massive shift in marketing best practices at their core. Adapting to this new, profoundly different environment is a tremendous challenge for all marketers. We're understanding how to apply this better and better as the weeks go by, and many in the industry are doing exciting things to take advantage of the seismic shift in the way billions of people access, use and engage with media around the world. It's an exciting time.

As I've reviewed before here, marketing is shifting away from traditional outbound messaging toward toward "getting found" by their audience through Inbound Marketing, especially as outbound approaches continue to lose their effectiveness in a world where so much information is published, shared and discussed every day. Nowadays marketers are finding they have to "earn their way in" (by publishing helpful, search engine optimized information on a blog, for example) in contrast to outbound marketing where they have to "buy, beg, or bug their way in". This infographic tells the story in a lighthearted way that I think anyone can understand. The movement is revolutionary - and has completely upset the long-established outbound marketing model.

Echoing the graphic above, Inbound Marketing for marketers consists of the three interwoven, ongoing elements:

1. Content Creation involves crafting and publishing information your prospective customers are looking for, enabling you to help them address a perceived need - and bringing value for them in the process.

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) enables your potential customers to find your content through search engines - particularly Google. Ideally on the first page of search results. SEO involves structuring your site and inbound links in order to optimize your site's ranking in search engines - where most people naturally begin their online purchase cycle.

3. SMO (Social Media Optimization) amplifies the impact of your content - as social media is where people are spending their time - and boosts organic search rankings in the process. When your (valuable) content is distributed across and discussed through social networks, it "finds" its audience and grows in influence, and therefore attracts qualified customers to your site.

These elements have converged in exciting ways to make connecting people with relevant ideas, services and products possible in ways simply not imaginable just a few years ago.

A good but not so obvious example of success is The Atlantic - a magazine that changed it's approach and has grown by leaps and bounds as its competitors have closed their doors.

The "Consumer" Marketing era is (thankfully) over

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:48:00 +0000

AdAge's Bob Garfield and IMC2's Doug Levy collaborated to create this ambitious look at how marketing has shifted in recent years - despite the fact many still practice the old media version of marketing:

Ignore the Human Element of Marketing at Your Own Peril - Forget Product Positioning, This is the Dawn of the Relationship Era

While the content of this article - the most buzzed about in months - should be a given, to many it's not... yet. The era of mass/outbound marketing is over, and the era of relationship/inbound marketing has very much arrived. If you haven't yet been educated - while not a perfect explanation - this is worth a read.

I highly recommend tapping into the abundant information HubSpot provides about Inbound Marketing, as no company investigates and publishes the changes in communications better. I blogged about it here.

After 11 years, I got it

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 12:29:00 +0000

I remember it like it was yesterday. Having excitedly unwrapped the latest monthly issue of Automobile Magazine, I was greeted with details of the much-anticipated 3^rd generation BMW M3. I was standing in my Minneapolis apartment, just a year out of college – almost 11 years ago exactly. Then and there I swore I’d get one as soon as I comfortably had the means. Unlike the Ferraris I grew up lusting over, this amazing car was within reach.

And I’ve dreamt of this day ever since. For the first time in 18 years of having a driver’s license, my daily driver will be the real deal (i.e., happiest when going 3 times the speed limit through every curve or straightaway).

It’s the reason and excuse I’ve had for pushing myself, and now… it’s here.

Here’s in part why I think this car is so special:

- At the time of the car's introduction, the engine developed the highest specific output of any naturally-aspirated engine ever made by BMW (except in the McLaren F1). It produces 333 horsepower at a dizzying 7900rpm. The car goes from a standstill to 60mph in 4.8 seconds.

- Its engine employs the innovative double VANOS system (infinitely-variable timing control on both intake and exhaust camshafts), individual throttle butterflies for each cylinder with drive-by-wire throttle control and M Dynamic Driving Control (which allows the driver to select a 'sport mode' for the throttle, providing quicker response to throttle inputs). Put another way, it makes a relatively small engine extremely powerful throughout the rev band, and the throttle nearly directly interprets every move of the driver's right foot. It’s an incredible feeling to drive it.

- It’s transmission, SMG (here's a tutorial on how to drive it), uses technology derived from BMW’s F1 racing program. It executes split-second shifts while enabling the driver to stay focused on the road. In 2009, Road and Track magazine named the E46 M3 outfitted with the SMG transmission as its “favorite sports car of all time”. Even today, the technology’s application is limited mostly to high-performance Aston Martins, Audis, Ferraris, Alfa Romeos, and Lamborghinis.

- Then there are the suspension and brakes, which are pretty incredible too. I'll get a feel for them over the next few months and let you know..

A few pictures my brother took:

The Legacy of Steve Jobs

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 20:00:00 +0000

In the midst of all the talk about Steve Jobs and his "resignation", (I saw someone on Facebook call it a "really long... much-deserved vacation", which I also prefer), I’ve found myself soaking in this explosion of information about someone I believe will be remembered as the most important American in technology, entertainment, media, and business of our generation. Who else but Steve Jobs?

I thought I'd share some of the highlights with you, so you can get a sense of what the fuss is over and THEN we can all get back to our busy lives...

The meaning of Steve -

This is brilliantly written, and surely describes Jobs's legacy better than anything I've seen.

Josh Bernoff goes on to explain how Steve's innovations changed the world five times (only Edison comes anywhere near this kind of impact):

1) Apple II - made it so anybody could have a computer. My first experience with a computer - at my computer lab in elementary school - was with an Apple II.

2) Macintosh - made computers easy and interactive. Suddenly made computing something fun, something interesting for everyone.

3) iPod - brought the MP3 player and the music store together, made it easy, and ultimately the standard

4) iPhone - real-time portal to the world, in your pocket. We'll never look at phones the same again.

5) iPad - changing the way we compute, adding new dimensions of interactivity. We'll never look at media the same again.

And there's more on the horizon, too. His work just may change the world again. We'll have to stay tuned for that.

It's also worth noting that for a brief period a couple weeks ago, Apple was the most valuable company in the world - even eclipsing mighty Exxon.

Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 -

I've blogged about his one before, and have watched it at least 20 times. Watching this is about the best way you can spend 15 minutes, in my opinion. Here you also get to see him as a person, as he tells the audience a little about how and why we did what he did.

Steve Jobs’s Best Quotes -

A few highlights:

“It will go down in history as a turning point for the music industry. This is landmark stuff. I can’t overestimate it!” [On the iTunes Music Store, Fortune, May 12, 2003]

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. … One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world.” [Announcement of the iPhone, Jan. 9, 2007]

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005

From the WSJ on "Jobs Quits as Apple CEO" -

Largely tells his story, with plenty of clever graphics to illustrate.

Steve Jobs's Ultimate Lesson for Companies -

"The lesson the world should take from Apple is that a company needs to become multi-dimensional. It needs to mix the core business with the disruptive innovation. It needs to combine the intellectual with the artistic. It needs to maintain within it the rational and the lunatic."

His Technical Drawings - Wow.

Finally, a couple videos from those who knew and worked with him from the beginning:

Wozniak on Steve Jobs's Resignation

Guy Kawasaki on Steve Job's Resignation

Social Commerce has arrived

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sun, 15 May 2011 16:46:00 +0000

I started actively tracking Social Commerce in January – referencing my thoughts for colleagues and clients over and over. The subject matter has grown and evolved incredibly quickly. Frankly, I could write a book on this topic better than I could write a blog post; social commerce has sensibly mushroomed into one of the social marketing industry’s most hotly-anticipated challenges. And I think this movement has more to do with timing than it does the limits of technology or developers’ desire to make it effective for marketers and “users” alike.

With Buddy Media's (disclosure: they’re a former employer) announcement this week of their acquisition of Spinback, I've been thinking more than ever that maybe - at last - social commerce is ready for prime-time. As many of us know, just because the technology can be built to enable something ground-breaking to happen, it still won’t happen until the timing is right. Sometimes that means months, and sometimes that means years. Everybody at the table - especially the marketer and the end user - needs to be ready to support it.

The need to move beyond Facebook Page Management into Social Commerce
The passage below echoes something I realized over a year and a half ago: Facebook page management isn't a sustainable business. Read here:

"This acquisition of both the team and technology follows our predictions that expensive Facebook Page management services are becoming commodified by companies offering free products, so the Page management industry needs to explore new revenue streams by expanding into ad buying or ecommerce through partnerships and acquisitions."

The market is driving this shift, and the innovation it unleashes will create opportunities never before possible for marketers and end-users alike.

The infographic below does a nice job of laying out the timeline and big movements last year. Certainly the 2011 infographic – if produced – will dwarf this one:

Indeed, Social Commerce has been around a while. Innovators in the space include Best Buy, Starbucks F-Commerce or Disney's ticket-buying app, and I've seen other marketers selling directly through Facebook (Victoria’s Secret, 1-800-Flowers.com and Delta Airlines - to name a few). But really – who cares, unless it adds significant value to the user experience?

Given the tremendous user base of Facebook, the overwhelming acceptance of social plug ins as part of the browsing/sharing experience, and the legitimate value that comes from people sharing information about products or services with their social graph - bit by bit the need has become very real. When you stop to consider that 1,000,000 sites have implemented Facebook's Social Layer and 150,000,000 people engage with Facebook on external sites every month, it's clear the infrastructure and user acceptance is here. A few more stats:

So let's take a step back and review how the process empowered consumers evaluate and buy products and services has changed - and the opportunity it represents for marketers eager to change the outdated model that just isn't as effective as it used to be.

The NEW Consumer Decision-Making Process
Social commerce involves a completely new decision-making process - as detailed in the McKinsey study referenced here, the new consumer decision journey is "CEPEA – Consider, Evaluate, Purchase, Enjoy, Advocate". The process used to involve just the first three letters – “CEP”.

“Smart social commerce should focus on the consumer decision journey, with the objective of helping people make smarter shopping decisions – where they most need that help”

"79-90% of marketing spend goes to advertising and promotions that hit consumers at the consider and buy phases, but consumers are often more open to influence at the evaluate and advocate stages"

“Social commerce may be primarily a Loyalty Loop solution (suited for stimulating loyalty rather than acquisition)”:

“Social commerce solutions have a natural fit with the Advocacy phase of the consumer decision journey – where consumers themselves become brand influential brand touch-points”:

Marketers must abandon media-centric marketing in favor of customer-centric Customer Experience Planning (CEP) strategies:

F-Commerce at work: ASOS
Some particularly interesting social commerce examples include what ASOS (the UK's answer to Zappos) and JCPenney are doing with their F-Commerce sites leveraging the Usablenet platform. It looks like the process is packaged and ready to go, though surely that “Request for Permission” step turns off half the people who go to use it.

With ASOS, the process is as simple as anywhere else online:

F-Commerce at work: Dove
Unilever has built an interesting platform for Dove - potentially offering F-Commerce- exclusive items to avoid conflicts with bricks-and-mortar retailers - using a Facebook storefront and Amazon back-end.

Dove leverages its Facebook page to sell international products already available on Amazon:

Unilever seems to understand that social commerce works best when you offer something worth talking about – i.e. something new, something unique and something exclusive – all they’re selling here:

Measurement
Finally, with the ability at last to measure how all these social actions add up and translate to revenue, Spinback’s analytics dashboard measures social sharing and the resulting traffic, conversions and sales. Spinback claims that companies using its tools have seen, on average, $2.10 in incremental revenue from each Facebook "wall post," and a 10.9% conversion rate for Facebook "shares" that lead to purchases:

Google's on-going quest to crack social

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sat, 14 May 2011 21:07:00 +0000

After watching Google try and fail again and again at social, I was starting to wonder that maybe they’d cracked it. After all, if Facebook was scared enough to launch a smear campaign – maybe Google had gotten the mix right this time?

The movement toward social search has been in the works for a couple years - yet it hasn't been adopted as a natural part of information-seeking for most users. But I’ve been thinking that's about to change… for a while now.

The big story circulating in the press over the last 24 hours centers around how apparently Facebook hired Burson-Marsteller to smear Google’s Social Circle. TechCrunch, in particular, has been slamming Facebook over it: here and here.

Skimming through the New York Times blog post, I found the details on what Social Circle actually is:
“Social Circle shows how Google tries to personalize search results by adding items your friends have liked on various social sites.

Google users can choose to connect their social networking accounts from services like Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn and Quora to their Google profile at profiles.google.com. Then, if they are logged into their Google accounts, search results on a given topic will include items posted by one of their friends on the topic. For example, a search result for “best restaurant San Francisco” might show that a friend has recommended a restaurant on Twitter.

People can also see recommendations of links posted by friends of friends, which Google calls secondary connections. Google users can see who their direct and secondary connections are by visiting google.com/dashboard and looking at the section on Social Circle and Content.”

This sounds incredibly exciting to me, so I clicked on the links and did some looking around. I ended up here. If you’re a Gmail user, you can try it too. It keeps an inventory of all your direct and indirect contacts, as you can see below:

Nothing too scary - or exciting, for that matter. The idea is eventually when you do a search on, say “best restaurant in NYC”, your friends’ recommendations will come up. But it doesn’t work yet. Or something.

Upon doing more clicking around, the only tool I could find that gave me social commentary was Google Real-Time.

Digging in, I found myself on Quora, looking at the "Will Google figure out social?" thread.
Silicon Valley insider Robert Scoble is one of the more respected technologists in the space. So, have they – or will they crack social? He certainly doesn’t think so. You can read his comments here.

It's not like this is an easy problem to solve. But it will be solved, and probably not by a behemoth like Google. It's tends to be the agile, unencumbered start-ups that figure these kinds of problems out, make some strides and THEN get acquired by a behemoth (or simply driven out of business by one).

Whenever Social Circle - or a more effective version - materializes, it will solve a big problem for Internet users, make life harder for traditional marketers, and make it much easier to find what your friends are saying about a product or service. Regardless of whose side you’re on, we're definitely moving this direction - and it's going to accelerate the changes we've already seen in marketing driven by social media. The potential of social search is enormous. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing how it shakes out. As always, time will tell.

Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sun, 08 May 2011 02:11:00 +0000

I find myself thinking quite a bit lately that the folks at HubSpot are pretty smart. They've pushed hard the delineation of Inbound Marketing ("earned" and "owned" attention, attained through blogs, social networks, organic search, etc.) versus Outbound Marketing (paid attention, broadcast through TV, print, radio, etc. advertising messages) - and the growing importance, and possibility, of Inbound Marketing as an attainable and scalable solution for any marketer. I agree, and I think it's an exciting time for any marketer with a worthy product or service. If you offer something a group of people desire and will value, and if you employ an effective digital marketing strategy, they'll find you. Creating either, of course, is much easier said than done.

Someone painstakingly took the time to read the writing on the wall and attach some meaningful graphics to it. You can see the full deck on slideshare.

I grabbed a few of the more compelling slides (in my opinion) below. A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words - and I think they captured some important points we should all be considering as move forward:

Some practical tips marketers must now follow:

The 2011 New York Auto Show

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 02:31:00 +0000

In the 8 and a half years I’ve lived in New York, I’ve eagerly anticipated attending the New York International Auto Show every April (If you wish to see my comments and photos from last year, click here). It’s always interesting to get a sense of the auto industry's confidence as reflected in the latest cars and displays the automakers bring together.

This year, it was bigger than ever. The audio/video displays throughout were over-the-top. Ford typically puts on a big production, but this year – unlike years past – Hyundai and Chrysler/Dodge also had a huge presence. Hyundai has come incredibly far since they entered the U.S. market back in 1986. And Chrysler/Dodge – under Fiat’s guidance, has invested in building new, compelling product which is generating a great deal of positive buzz – something they need badly. It shows, and I’m impressed with what I saw.

Ford is stronger now than at any other point in my lifetime. Their display focused on hybrid technology, the impressive new Explorer, the Mustang Boss 302, and cutouts showing the technical components of the cars – including the engines – which is always fun to see. I didn’t take photos of the Ford display, as it was our first stop and I just hadn’t started snapping yet.

Notably absent (unless I missed it) was GM. At least this was the case on the main floor, which is devoted to cars – as I didn’t feel like carting Hannah’s stroller downstairs to see the trucks. And then it’s always a disappointment when Ferrari/Maserati, Lamborghini and Bugatti don’t show. But they don’t have to.

On to the photos:

Nissan (Skyline) GT-R.
Though it’s been around a few years, it’s getting meaner and wilder. It’s a perfect halo for Nissan, especially when the comical Murano SUV/Convertible was sitting on the other side of the room, inciting snickers and killing Nissanstreet-cred.

Chrysler
The 300 has perhaps too much body cladding, but the design overall is good. It doesn’t stand out like the previous 300 did, but it certainly doesn’t tarnish the legacy built by that last model. I’m hopeful it will sell well.

I also think the positioning Chrysler is taking on is smart – promoting the idea of American toughness as something unique and special in its own right. The steadfast steelworkers of Detroit building luxury cars. Neither the Germans nor the Japanese can touch that.

Fiat
After the forced marriage with Chrysler a while back, Fiat now has access to all of Chrysler’s distribution channels – and they’ve put a heavy push behind the retro 500. It’s been getting a surprising amount of positive press, but I just don’t get it. Americans like big cars. Why would they care about this little thing that looks like it should be on the streets of Rome? MINI deservedly received a tremendous amount of positive buzz and the cars have sold well, but their package was so much more compelling. They truly had an exciting angle – a more affordable, compact BMW-engineered hot-rod with British charm. I don’t see the angle here.

VW Microbus. Awesome.

Hyundai dominates.
They’re clearly the new Toyota – in that they’re quickly moving up the sales charts, and selling cars that will appeal most to the middle-market.

Hannah in the midst of the crowd.

Given how the tragic tsunami profoundly affected the Japanese automakers, their recent efforts have most likely been focused elsewhere than the auto show circuit. Secondly, production has suffered greatly given their crippled infrastructure.

Toyota invested less this year in the Toyota brand and more into Scion – perhaps because Scion has remained unscathed by the quality controversy still likely affecting public perception of the mother brand. Not surprisingly, Toyota had videos running emphasizing the quality of Toyota cars. Is their strategy showing a little too much?

I thought this concept from Scion was cool – and quite a crowd had assembled around to check it out.

The MINI Countryman – it’s not so mini. Again, Americans like big cars. I can’t blame MINI for coming out with a bigger model to capture additional sales the brand otherwise would lose to another make.

The Porsche Panamera just saddens me. Why can’t they put all that power and capability into a smaller car? While this beast is impressively fast and surprisingly agile, I can’t help but think they could have invested all those engineering resources into a smaller, lighter car and created something so much more compelling. There are only so many people who can afford to buy a $100,000+ four-door anyway, right?

Cayman as utility vehicle (note the bike rack and focus on the tiny trunk)? Come on! It’s a blast to drive! Leave it at that.

I got a kick out of the Facebook.com/Porsche call-out on this million-mile 911. Reminds me of Aol keywords from a decade ago.

The Audi display was out of this world.

The R8 remains stunning.

Saab is working on making their comeback after being brought back from the dead last year. It’s convincingly cool and different. It’ll be interesting to see if they can make it work. I think most of us have doubts.

The Spyker (Saab's new, struggling owner) – the only hardcore, bespoke exotic I saw at the show.

The Lotus Esprit – first all-new Esprit since what – the ‘80s? I think their long-held emphasis on light bodies with compact, high-strung engines and well-engineered suspensions just might get some traction in today's market.

Mercedes and BMW were enormous as usual. And as usual, crowds of people were gathered there. It always pleases me to see Mercedes has its mojo back after Chrysler drained their resources in the last decade.

The Ducati next to the C63 AMG seems appropriate, but not really (the brutish German next to the sonorous Italian) – and why? No matter. It’s nice to get the two in the same frame.

What's with the baby-blue SLS with orange trim? I realize it looked great on the late-‘50s Gullwing SLs, but what were they getting at here? That you can order it in ANY color you like? It’s still gorgeous – and people were snapping pictures of it left and right.

The QR code with the 3-pointed star logo is very clever.

Mercedes-Benz has been getting quite a lot of press over the A-Class concept (NYTimes and Jalopnik). It looks like a mini Batmobile. For the money, I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t get a GTI for $10k+ less. Then again, I gather the fuss over this model is that it was envisioned as a truly global car (introduced within days in Shanghai and New York) – notably the Asian market.

The BMW M cars cross the model range now, though I’ll probably always lust most for the M3. We've all got to have our something. The 1-series M Coupe (couldn’t call it an M1) has a killer combo – big engine, M-tuned suspension, and a compact and lightweight body.

BMW got the 6-series design right – leaning on the styling initiated in the re-designed 7-series from last year.

Finally, the auto show can be exhausting. The trip out to the Javits Center is brutal enough. Then there are the crowds and acres and acres of displays. It got the best of Hannah.

On a separate note, I wrote this post using a different method than before. After spending a couple hours at the show – and after Hannah fell asleep in her stroller – I recorded a 13-minute Voice Memo capturing my comments as I flipped through the photos on my iPhone. I’ve been writing presentations and proposals after recording Voice Memos lately, and I similarly found that using this method to blog is incredibly efficient, too. Here I was able to articulate my reactions while they were fresh, and then transcribe them into written form once I had a few minutes to devote to writing the post. If I’d had the patience to use the touch screen display to type, I could have crafted the post on my phone. The tools readily at our disposal today are truly amazing to me in how they can enable us to not only be more efficient, but empower us to communicate with the world through multiple mediums using a hand-held device just about anyone can afford. Year by year, it’s getting easier to share our thoughts with the world – in whatever form we care to do it. I find it all very exciting.

Why we need Architects

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sun, 13 Mar 2011 03:18:00 +0000

If you want to build something, you're going to need the right tools. But what if you don't truly know how to apply them?

A hammer, for instance, is an immensely valuable tool capable of helping to construct amazing things. But if you don't know what you're building - and why you’re building it - that hammer will never come close to realizing its purpose. That should be obvious, right? Yet it’s not.

You want to build something remarkable, or merely effective? You're going to need an architect. Preferably a good architect – one with creativity, perspective, experience and vision. The cost is too high otherwise.

The information explosion – and what it means

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 15:55:00 +0000

“Between the dawn of civilization and 2003, five exabytes of information were created. In the last two days, five exabytes of information have been created, and that rate is accelerating” -- Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google

Mind-boggling to think about, isn't it? But what does it mean, really?

It means a lot of things. It means the world is changing faster than it ever has before, and that the rate of change will only increase. It means that we have the ability to create opportunities we couldn't have imagined years - even months - ago. It means innovation will skyrocket (more on that below). It means we'll have seemingly unlimited access to information and ideas we couldn't have imagined a few years ago. It means we'll waste much less time on redundancies - as it’s easier than ever for us to learn from other people, build on it, and share it so others can build on our contributions. The list goes on and on.

It also means there will be more distractions than ever - and it's getting harder to stay focused on the things that matter. Yet its clear there is far more good than bad resulting from this information explosion. We'll adapt - as we always have.

Above all, it means we need to hold on tight, pay close attention, and open our minds to completely new ways of thinking, communicating and getting things done. We're living in the most exciting time in history - and we’ve only seen the beginning.

- The abridged briefing below gives a little more food for thought on what innovation means today.
- To download the full “Future Trends of Innovation” presentation, click here.
- For a summary, click here.

Future Trends Briefing

Orabrush - the best social marketing program (on a budget)

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 02:50:00 +0000

The brand story that undeniably gets people's attention and makes smaller brands with smaller budgets think twice about investing big in social media marketing is Orabrush.

Orabrush's web presence demonstrates the benefits of integration, puts clear and compelling content at the top where it should be, gets the story out where people are spending their time (Facebook, YouTube and their smartphones) and lures them in (to the online hub) to learn more - and ultimately, buy. Importantly, it also gives people something worthy of sharing. A groundswell of buzz has resulted, and now retailers are opening their shelf-space to a once unheard-of brand from Provo, Utah. Behold the power of social media...

Orabrush’s story, as quoted from an article in the New York Times:

“People have viewed Orabrush’s YouTube clips 24 million times (actually, they're nearing 35 million as of this posting). Orabrush has sold $1 million worth of the $5 tongue brushes through YouTube, and major drugstores are beginning to stock it on their shelves.

Almost 40,000 people have subscribed to get e-mail updates every time Orabrush posts a new video, making it the seventh most-subscribed channel, ahead of brands like Disney, BMW and Nintendo Wii.

'YouTube videos reverse big companies’ marketing equations', said Jeff Davis, Orabrush’s chief executive and a 23-year P.& G. veteran. 'What P.& G. taught me is a different model — you have an idea, build a prototype, have a test market, scale the product, find a retailer and distribution, then turn on marketing,' he said. 'This was the reverse. We basically launched the entire brand on YouTube and Facebook.'"

The call-to-action is clear, and the content is easy to find:

"It’s the type of product you can’t sell with search, you can’t sell with display, but it’s uniquely able to sell because of the power of video’s medium,' said Salar Kamangar, co-head of YouTube. 'These are user-choice ads, things that people are choosing to click on."

Orabrush's YouTube channel has received more than 34 million views by keeping their presence simple, compelling and worth sharing:

Focusing on the User Experience - Orabrush's YouTube channel is smartly integrated with the most intuitive navigation I've seen. They've simplified the user experience with a video library, which makes people want to stick around to learn more:

The hub site is to-the-point, easy-to-use and integrated with every key digital channel:

Orabrush brings its Facebook feed and its advocates' respective social graphs to the hub - and they don't make it complicated for the user:

From the hub, people can then go mobile with an iPhone app that they can actually put to use - and just may talk about with their friends:

Old Spice Man – the best social media campaign ever?

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 18:07:00 +0000

I've been meaning to write this post since July. Typical of what happens these days, I’ve stayed active with Facebook and Twitter while the blog sits unattended. Blogging requires quite a bit of time to do well, and I simply lack the bandwidth to give it what it deserves. It's true; 140 characters IS easier when work and life get in the way! But I’d blog every day if I could..

Anyway, imagine the scenario. You’re a Proctor & Gamble brand marketer and you need to figure out how to make an un-hip deodorant brand cool. I can tell you – as someone who has developed strategies for hundred of brands – this is a tough assignment. Who wants to have a relationship with their deodorant? Axe notwithstanding, it's rarely been achieved. Yet millions of people buy the stuff every day, they want to make a quick decision at the store they can feel good about, and so indeed it is a worthwhile challenge.

I was and continue to be captivated by the solution Wieden + Kennedy and P&G developed for the “Old Spice Man” campaign last year. If you don't have time to read the full post, consider these points:
1. It got people to think about Old Spice in a very new light – an extremely difficult task
2. Sales went up 107% the month after
3. 186 million video views on YouTube and counting

I've heard the argument over and over that the campaign was heavily supported by traditional media (which I think is good, because it shows a truly integrated approach). The trigger ad, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like," (below) was launched online and on TV last February. Impressively, the ad received more than 2 million views online in its first two weeks. By the end of Spring it had 11 million views and now stands at nearly 30 million:

The success of that ad prompted the sequel, "The Response Campaign," where on July 13th - 14th Wieden + Kennedy produced 186 videos featuring Isaiah Mustafa, the "Old Spice Guy," responding to tweets and Facebook updates from social media influencers at the speed of the internet (several videos were produced every hour, with turnaround taking about 30 minutes).

Some of the astounding numbers from that 2-day push:
- 186 video responses
- 5,900,000 YouTube views on day one
- 2,700% increase in Twitter followers
- 300% bump in traffic to OldSpice.com
- More than 1,000,000,000 impressions across all of the different channels

The key links:
- Facebook.com/OldSpice - Over 1.2 million “likes”. Click the Old Spice Guy tab, sit back, and laugh. Notice each of these videos was created in response to user-generated questions (posed largely on Twitter):

- Twitter.com/OldSpice - Over 120,000 followers, and a public forum for all of them:

- YouTube.com/OldSpice - click “responses” (Old Spice Man Internet Responses) - Over 186 million views!

But did it accomplish the most important task – did it drive sales? Yes – the chart below covers some of the results, including an overall 106% bump in sales:

As covered in Adweek: “the popular TV effort from Wieden + Kennedy spun out into a social media salvo that took its main character -- the super-suave, Old Spice Guy, envied by men and adored by women -- and plopped him smack in the middle of the real-time Web.

In two days, Isaiah Mustafa, the actor who plays the ever-shirtless Old Spice guy, made about 200 short videos responding to comments and questions directed his way via Twitter, Facebook and social sites like Reddit.

Wieden decided to center the social media push around YouTube and Twitter. YouTube is hosting the videos, while Twitter provided the bulk of the distribution.

The effort involves a team of writers, art directors, producers, editors and social media strategists. The social media experts initially identified a crop of popular bloggers in key areas like entertainment (Perez Hilton), technology (4chan) and advertising (Adweek's own AdFreak), as well as regular YouTube and Facebook commenters. Some videos were pre-shot, but the vast majority (were produced) over 48 hours from a studio in Portland, writing and producing them on the fly.

The social media team scoured the Web for comments related to the Old Spice campaign. They fed the ones that were funny or from interesting sources to the creatives, who then determined which made good fodder for humorous videos.

They were typically shot in a take or two. In all, Wieden was able to go from comment to video response in as little as 30 minutes.”

It’s an impressive but manageable operation which showed a keen understanding of people’s media consumption habits today – and catered to them in real-time.

Mashable wrote: “This campaign really is a perfect storm of viralty — not only does it target specific bloggers (who are then more likely to cover the whole thing), it also reaches out to less prominent individuals who can be made more aware of Old Spice. Moreover, they become personally invested in the brand because they have actually become a part of the world they have created.”

The campaign responded to numerous tweets from hundreds of influential tweeters – including:
- Christina Applegate
- Allyssa Milano
- George Stephanopoulos
- Rose McGowan (Charmed)
- Perez Hilton
- Demi Moore
- Ashton Kutcher
- Kevin Rose (founder of Digg)
- Huffington Post
- Gizmodo
- TheEllenShow
- Starbucks

And lastly, a few of the many compelling articles written on the subject:
- Five Things The Old Spice Man Means For Advertising
- 3 things you don't know about Old Spice's success
- How Old Spice is tapping into the real-time web
- The Old Spice Guy Now Making Custom Videos for Fans via Social Media

B2B marketing case study: GE

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 22:41:00 +0000

I find myself in discussions about social media and how it applies to marketing and communications often. In debates around the topic, I hear comments from people questioning the value of social media for B2B marketers. Since I eat, breathe and sleep the stuff the evidence of success and best practices are all around. Yet I understand most people can’t justify spending the time I do staying on top of all the developments going on every day.

So I thought I’d give an example here. GE is regarded in social media circles as a respected innovator for their efforts modernizing their marketing infrastructure – a daunting challenge for the world’s 2nd largest company with more than 300,000 employees running dozens of business units in over 100 countries. If you want to learn details of the company’s history and what encompasses GE today, their Wikipedia profile is worth a read; this is a company that’s smartly evolved with the times. And of course, I can’t possibly adequately summarize their strategy in a single blog post – especially as an outsider.

The bulk of their business involves selling directly to businesses (B2B), not “consumers” (B2C), so there’s no real need for them to market the company to the masses. Yet given their stature and global presence, they still need a visible public face. It’s just that there is no need for them to advertise heavily in mass media to sell products like, say Proctor & Gamble or General Motors do, as the mass audience isn’t who buys their products. So when you stop and think as if you're in GE’s marketing team, it's quite a challenge to promote the company in a cohesive, compelling way that moves the needle and generates a meaningful return for their marketing dollars. Their solution has been to develop three campaigns:
- Imagination at Work – for general awareness
- Healthymagination – for all-things health product related
- Ecomagination – for all-things energy product related

CMO Beth Comstock
For an insider’s point of view on the marketing revolution at GE - and how their marketing organization is organized, CMO Beth Comstock’s audio interview and co-authored article gets into the details. A few points she covered:

During the Jack Welch era, GE focused on acquiring businesses. When he left, they shifted to growing from within. New leadership paid close attention to the changing business climate, and began to invest in new technologies and marketing the organization more effectively in key global growth areas – like India, Brazil and China.

Strategic marketers are key to innovation in those markets. GE marketers now apply a reverse innovation process - an important trend. For instance, they interviewed customers and found that they needed an ultrasound machine the size of a briefcase to go to rural markets, so they came back and engineered the product around those needs.

Another example she gave was about GE Capital, which has had some tough challenges over the past couple years. They used data and analytics to create a "war room" – where the key players met frequently to analyze customer trends, competitors, and GE's value propositions. Doing this, they were able to generate insights to help them develop the offerings customers would value most coming out of a very difficult economic climate.
At GE Aviation, listening to feedback from the field drove them to create essentially a mobile tablet for airline service maintenance folks to use to gauge the performance and condition of engines.

A very important point she made was that by analyzing all this data they were able separate the perceived from the real. Having these fact-based insights enabled them to move fast with certainty in a world filled with uncertainty. Put another way, they were able to turn crisis into opportunity, decline into growth.

Social issues internet users care about

With Healthymagination and Ecomagination, they have wisely aligned themselves with two movements nearly everyone can support – the need for improved healthcare through better technology, and environmentally-responsible energy production. With that message, they have optimized their presence to the social channels where people go to look for information.

GE is playing in the right space; internet users have shown a tendency to be interested in the issues GE is addressing through these initiatives - like solar energy, climate change, and energy issues:

Promoting the Smart Grid

Well known for innovative marketing programs, GE's Smart Grid program stuck with me most. Using innovative, easily-accessible technology to promote innovative, easily-accessible technology resonates in people heads. It's a smart approach.

Try it for yourself here.

Ecomagination – Well-integrated across the key digital and social channels like Google, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube - all elements feed into the hub site, and all channels encourage users to "like", "follow" or subscribe to stay in the loop:

Ecomagination actively seeks audience input – and makes it easy for people to contribute:

Healthymagination – Similarly to Ecomagination, Healthymagination's presence has also been well-integrated across the digital and social channels. It's a different audience with different objectives, but the need to build a presence that makes it easy for your audience to find the type of information they're seeking is universal for all brands - as is the need to engage people in a long-term relationship with the brand wherever possible:

GE has established a series of platforms to seek out feedback from people on what they want to see from the power grid and other efficient power generation initiatives. Given it's such an interesting topic that affects so many, they're getting meaningful feedback:

GE Reports - In addition to the campaigns discussed above, GE Reports ensures content is distributed to places where people are most likely to look for information about GE, its product categories, or its investments:

Subscribing to GE Reports is easy; if the content is relevant to you, simply enter your email address and GE will then have the ability to engage with you directly through email on an on-going basis:

Internal and External Communication and Collaboration - A very informative article on GE went into further details about how GE is utilizing smartphones and social media to enable valuable, timely functions simply, quickly, with the user experience in mind, and across the organization:

"The company has created more than 45 applications, both for the market and for internal and external communications. A global giant with total revenue in 2010 of $150.2 billion, GE’s businesses reach from aviation to power transformers. It uses mobile technology to do everything from promoting employee fitness to explaining its health care business through a game (below).
Railroad workers can use GE apps for handheld devices to stop an approaching locomotive or to calculate the number of trains that have crossed a stretch of track, their horsepower and their average load. An engineer with an iPad can check out a power transformer off in the wilderness and see whether it needs repairs before he drives out on a dirt road to inspect it.

'Everyone from field service engineers to sales team members to senior executives are playing the mobile field, whether it’s BlackBerry, the new iPhone, the iPad, Android,' says James Blomberg, IT team leader for new-media technology. “So we’re trying to make sure we have the right tools at their fingertips on those platforms.”

A program called PR Insight tracks and sorts what people are writing about GE in newspapers, on personal websites, on blogs and elsewhere, a task that would otherwise be impossible in a worldwide company. GE plans to make it available on smartphones once new BlackBerry software is released."

Conclusions

Integrating all the digital channels to full advantage to promote what GE is doing in plain English makes it easier than ever for interested people to engage in a long-term, on-going relationship with them.

If a multinational conglomerate's goal is to be perceived as a thought-leader, this is an effective way to go about it. These campaigns communicate well that GE is an important, innovative company with tremendous resources and big plans - which speaks volumes to a decision maker mulling over a substantial investment.

Technology is amazing

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 05:51:00 +0000

I got an iPhone 4 today - a gadget with features that will become commonplace before we know it. Though not enough people have one to make this feature truly usable YET, that I can make a video call on my phone anywhere I choose with someone who is anyplace else is nothing short of astonishing to me. And that's just one of hundreds of features on this tiny, very affordable device that would have been unimaginable just 10 years ago.

I remember my parents telling me in the middle of an Oklahoma summer how they didn't have air-conditioning or power windows in their cars when they were kids - something unthinkable to me at the time. What kinds of stories will we tell our kids? Here's one: "When I was a kid, I couldn't call my grandmother half-way across the country and talk to her face-to-face for free". Technology is amazing, and we almost never stop to think and allow ourselves to be mesmerized by all the progress we've made.

To hear comedian Louis C.K. tell it better than anyone, take a look at this interview he gave on Conan last year. If you haven't already, watch it. If you saw it last year, it's worth watching again:

And here's what really gets me going: we ain't seen nothing yet.

Serenity

noreply@blogger.com (Brent Campbell) — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 14:46:00 +0000

Stumbling upon this a few minutes ago, I was knocked out by it as I always am - and felt I should share.

Serenity prayer

God grant us the Serenity to accept things we cannot change, Courage to change the things we can, and the Wisdom to know the difference. Patience for the things that take time Appreciation for all that we have, and Tolerance for those with different struggles. Freedom to live beyond the limitations of our past ways, the Strength to get up and try again even when we feel it is hopeless.

You can’t add anything to that.