paul isakson // everything can always be made better

Help Me Make This Better

2009-12-08T16:10:20-06:00

I've not been writing here nearly as much as I would like to.

Lots of reasons excuses, but none of them really worth spelling out.

I'm considering a number of things to get back to writing more.

As I work through this, I'd love to know what you'd like to see.

No holds barred. Just tell me what you think. What can I do better? More of? Less of?

I really want to know. It's the only way I can truly make this better.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Paul

Why So Serious?

2009-12-06T19:39:01-06:00

Flickr // AJoelle_xo / CC BY 2.0

In reading an article earlier today on the alleged death of method acting, I was reminded of Russell's thoughts on pretending and of an observation I've noted repeatedly as it relates to the business world.

As marketers, we can often take ourselves and what we do far too seriously. When this is true, in many ways we become method marketers. We begin living and breathing our roles and the challenges we face in them at home, at the grocery store, in the bar, at the coffee shop, etc.; always looking for ways to sell more of whatever it is we sell. We forget how to have fun in our work and that people may actually do fun things with or around our products and services.

I realize this might not sound like a problem to some, but what's wrong with this is that it far too easily becomes about us and how well be play our role instead of being about the people who actually buy our products and services. We get focused on how well we can assume the identity of the character we think we should be to impress our boss/clients, get a promotion or maybe win an award. We get very serious about digging into piles of data and creating more piles of data to support that data so we can prove we're right.

All the while, we should be considering how we could better engage and inspire the people using our products or services. In the absence of actual observation, we should be pretending we're the person who buys our product or service and think about what their life is like. We should pretend we're at home watching TV when our commercial comes on and ask ourselves, would I actually watch this if I were our customer? We should pretend we're having a problem with our product or service and find out how easy or hard it is to get a satisfactory solution.

All this to say that there are times to be serious at work but we should never do so at the expense of remembering who actually is on the receiving end of the marketing we create and what they do with the products and services we sell. And, as Russell noted, there is a lot of power in pretending and we should use that more often. Not only in putting that power to work in the work, but also in our approach to creating it.

The Human Factor

2009-11-02T17:42:52-06:00

Flickr // Jeremy Farmer Photog

I've been listening to a fair amount of Andrew Bird lately and in doing so, the song "Tables and Chairs" has particularly stood out for a number of reasons. The largest of them being a string of lyrics very early on in the song, "don't let the human factor fail to be a factor at all."

From where I stand, this is one of the biggest reasons behind the mess we're in. We've failed to let the human factor be a factor at all.

In the never-ceasing push to decrease costs and increase profits, we have often forgotten what it means to be humans making products, services, experiences and messages for other humans with other humans.

Somehow, when we step through the doors of our workplaces, we habitually plug into our routines to getting our work done in the most efficient way possible.

We erase the memory of how frustrated we get with another company when their __________ doesn't work / say / do something the way we expected and wanted it to.

We forget how much we like the people we work with and for outside of work.

We've slowly been programmed to focus on creating new ways to squeeze more out of people at the cash register instead of on helping each other get more out of life.

We have unconsciously stripped the human factor out of the way to make getting our jobs done easier, faster and ultimately, more profitable for our employers and investors.

Clearly, this has to stop if we want to make the changes this industry needs—the changes we all like to talk about so much.

We need to change our approach.

We need to remember the human side of who we're creating things for and who is creating them with us.

We need to stop giving only lip service to the idea of getting out of the office more to spend time with our customers and consumers.

We need to observe and engage with people in their everyday lives not only using the things we create, but also in and around those things, so that we can learn how to actually improve people's quality of life in some way.

We need to step back, take a new look at the world, and put people at the center.

In other words, we need to make the human factor the most important factor of all.

Opening New Doors

2009-10-21T11:48:04-05:00

Flickr // elmada

I've been talking about a lot of things here over the past three years that I have a great deal of passion for.

Things like looking optimistically at what's happening today so that we can create a better future for marketing and advertising; using social media to do things instead of just say them; creating better products and services because they really are the marketing; seeing the world as interconnected communities instead of audiences; doing things worth talking about and being about something bigger than yourself as a brand.

All of this has come to fall under the banner of continually innovating our approaches to marketing and the idea that, "Everything can always be made better." That is something I truly believe and will always be the case.

I have decided it's time to activate my passion for marketing innovation on a very personal level and listen to the voice inside, calling me to open the double-wide doors to new possibilities and opportunities. I have to walk my own talk.

That being the case, I resigned from my role as Head of Strategy at space150 and completed my last day there on October 9th so that I could be free to collaborate and connect with any of you interested in doing so.

If you have ever had the thought cross your mind that you'd like to connect with, collaborate with, or work with me, the door is open and I would love to hear from you.

From having conversations about design, business, marketing and technology to sharing ideas to possible collaborations and projects to just being people with like-minded interests getting to know each other. I'm open to it. My contact information is below. Reach out at any time.

I want to say thank you to Billy, Marcus and the rest of the incredibly wonderful and talented people at space150. It was an amazing two-plus years of learning, growing, collaborating, working hard, having fun and so much more. Thank you also for your encouragement and support in what I'm now doing.

All in all, I'm excited. And to be completely honest, a little bit nervous.

But mostly excited. Really excited.

I'm excited to continue helping good organizations and great people do amazing things.

I'm excited about the possibilities the future holds to create positive change in this thing we call marketing and through that, create positive change in the world and in people's lives.

I'm excited to put my passion for creating that future to work in new ways.

I'm excited to collaborate and connect with others who share that passion.

I'm excited to continue to share my thinking and passion for all of this with you here, and connecting with you personally as well.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Paul

Contact info:

How to Create Advocacy and Conversation (via @FrankInLalaland)

2009-10-17T14:59:59-05:00

Frank is presenting a great take on creating advocacy and conversation at Planningness - well worth the view and discussing with colleagues and clients.

Especially useful (in my opinion) is the advocacy model/tool beginning on slide 30. In an age of conversation and transparency, brand behavior is far more important than brand language. Having tools to help us figure out how brands should behave instead of how they should talk will help us all move the industry forward faster.

As always, would love to know your take on this. Rather than sharing your thoughts here though, put them in the comments on the SlideShare page so the discussion can be held in a broader forum for all who view it...

Thank You, UBA

2009-10-13T23:02:54-05:00

This is long overdue, but here is the extended "What's Next for 2009" presentation I delivered at UBA's 60th Anniversary Congress a few weeks back.

As you'll see, a lot of bits are the same, some bits are new. Thank you to everyone who contributed thinking to this updated version. I'll definitely be doing more reaching out in the future.

As for the event, it was one of the best run days I've been a part of in a long time. I learned a lot from the other speakers and from conversations held during the coffee breaks, lunch, happy hour and dinner. (You can download copies of all of the presentations from the UBA's page recapping the day. Look just below the recap video. I think you'll find interesting points in each of them, so I highly recommend it.)

Thank you to all of the wonderful people I met in Brussels for your conversations, kindness and feedback. And a big thank you to Chris, Jan, Frédéric, and Alice for your generosity and graciousness.

The Next 60 Years In Advertising

2009-09-08T17:28:40-05:00

Do you have some ideas for what it will be? I hope so.

Why? Because I'd like to have you help me out with something...

I've been honored with an invitation to present in Brussels at the Union of Belgian Advertisers 60th Anniversary Congress. The topic they've asked me to cover is where this crazy world of advertising is going. Per the request, I'll be presenting an updated and slightly extended version of the "What's Next" presentation I gave in Boston a month ago.

How can you help? I have two requests.

First, I'd love to hear your thoughts for how to improve the presentation.

What's missing? What's off? What could be improved? What should be left out? Etc. Be as brutally honest as you like. It will only help make it better.

Secondly, I want to include a section that highlights what some of you think the next 60 years will hold for advertising and marketing. I'll treat what you say in one of two ways, depending on how you submit it.

If you chose to do a written submission, or would like what you submit to be written as a quote, I'll do it just as the other quote slides are in the deck - with an image and your quote, attributed to you.

The other way will be to show short videos or a video mix of people's thoughts for those of you who want to submit your ideas through a short video.

Send me any thoughts you have for either of these requests however you like - written, recorded audio/video, Twitter... However works for you.

To make sure I see/get them, leave any thoughts/links/etc. in the comments here, @ or DM me on Twitter (@paulisakson) or send me an email - paul [dot] isakson [at] gmail [dot] com.

I look forward to hearing from you, and thanks in advance for your help!

It's Not What You Say That Matters

2009-09-03T23:14:49-05:00

Being that one of the main tenets of social media is sharing, I thought it was only appropriate that I share part of how we've been talking about social media with various people.*

As I'm sure you have been reading and hearing, there is more and more chatter about looking at people's behaviors within social media, not just the tools and technology. That's the main point of this presentation—focusing on behaviors and what people are doing.

Anyway, for many of you, being as active in this area as you are, I'm sure most of this is just a review. Either way, I'd love to know what you think...

*This is generally the first 1/2 to 1/3 of what we present. The rest is custom/specific to the audience/client.

Do You PowerPoint Karaoke?

2009-09-01T20:54:32-05:00

I try not to talk too much about the work we're doing at space150, but this is one I wanted to share for a few reasons. (I hope you don't mind. I promise to not make it a recurring thing.) First, it's been fun to see come to life over the past few months. Secondly, we need your help in making it a success. Third, if you participate, you could win up to $5,000.

So, what is it?

A PowerPoint Karaoke (or, Battle Decks if you prefer) competition to help create awareness for (our client) Imation's Wireless Projection Link. You can get all the details here. What we really need right now are people willing to host an event, which we'll provide a kit for – just see the main page of the site and check out the info on the right if you're interested. If not, but you know someone who might be, please pass it along.

Thanks for letting me interrupt with a little work stuff. Now, I promise to get back to sharing the things you're used to seeing here...

A Final Post On @don_draper

2009-08-31T21:20:28-05:00

As some of you may have noticed, @don_draper started Tweeting again. For the sake of being honest and bringing closure to the whole thing, here's what has happened.

Due to the low number of people showing they were interested in taking over the account, I chose to skip the process of a competition and voting and just hand over the account in full to the person who demonstrated that they understood Don's character and wanted to do it the most.

I look forward to seeing how they handle it. I hope you do too.