Social Causes

It's interesting isn't it that social causes like political movements appear to have more traction in social media than plain selling (i.e Not what's in it for me, What's in it for us?) James pitched in here about social value as more important than brand value though they could be the same thing sometimes in the future, and I wrote back here and here and God knows elsewhere, that this is the time for brand's to live with real values. It's not important whether they're left or right with their politics or their social causes, but whether they have a standpoint at all. The days of placing wealth creation at the centre of the wealth creation model seem to be diminishing when I see great creative ideas like this don't you think?

Couple that with a tweet I picked(nicked) off Faris early this Sunday morning, which single handedly redefines the academic definition of marketing, and I think we might see a valuable role for brands in social media. Only thing is they need to have some values and a standpoint in the first place. Not many yet are there? But surely it's only a matter of time before a global FMCG brand becomes the first to really stand behind say a powerful idea like 'campaign for real beauty' across all it's products and not just be cynical about one while pushing another message with others.

C'mon what are you waiting for? It's a mini depression and you all look and sell the same things. Stand for something.

Hat Tip to Mark Earls for spotting this even if we're having a wee squabble over the potential for neuro-ideas over at the deviant's place. You will have to go visit Marks to see the idea anyway as the object embedding is not working with Blogger.

Breaking News

Easily the biggest news of the year for Social Media in China is the just announced 430 million dollar investment by Oak Pacific Interactive for Xiaonei the Chinese Facebook. I posted just recently about China 2.0 over here, with inexpensive ways for brands to get involved with social media, but these guys have just thrown an incredible amount of money into this small start up despite a) the Social Media model is unproven in China b) a revenue model is yet to be harvested from that. This is the equivalent of Google's purchase of Youtube in 2006

Whether this proves a sound investment or not (and its hard to see why a way to make it work wont be found) this is another example of the shift from interruptive messaging of the traditional monologue model of advertising to the dialog model we are seeing all round the world. Advertising may not be broken in developing economies as Russell points out quite correctly, but as long as the shift of eyeballs to computer screens continues it's possible that the massive passive is diminishing a lot quicker than us Asian planners may have first anticipated.

For a comprehensive and authoritive analysis check out Kaiser Kuo's blog post on Ogilvy's Digital Watch.

Cadbury Creme Egg

Via Faris where there is another version too.

Tasty Delicious Enable Happiness

I've been tagged twice in the last week or so with two memes and it really is only sporting to participate. The first occasion started with the gifted Marcus in Munich and with whom despite inevitable titanic struggles over the meaning of meaning I'd love to work with some day. I just know we could push ideas further than I''ve ever had a chance to push before. So I'm crossing my fingers on that one. In the mean time Marcus has asked me to name five bloggers that I'd wish to be a little more like. Also I've been graciously tagged by Johnnie Moore who really is quite brilliant and curmudgeonly in a likable-professor way. I also suspect that he's closer to the meaning of it all even though he'd probably dislike that compliment.

Johnnie has invited me to share eight random facts/ habits and pass the meme onto a further eight. Well in the interests of symmetry and breaking rules (The best to the brave) I'll only do five and intersperse those five facts and five cross-meme links with some snaps I've taken today. Just in case that has confused those I've linked to it means that ideally you should pick up the meme mashup and do both as well.... if you like of course. So here goes.

First off is the admission that I was born in Germany and have a Maltese mother and an English Father so truthfully I don't really buy into any nationalism at all and see the planet as all mine wherever I choose to tip up. It's kind of liberating to discard a passport and inherit a planet. I also see how easy it is for different countries to start saying the 'we' word when lets face it, 'we' are all in this together. Particularly as the planet heats up. So shape up. I'm tagging Rob Campbell on this one simply because on top of living in Singapore and loving Asia like myself, he's given me some of the best laughs on the net if only for the comments section on his blog which is just ace.


Second I guess I can fairly admit to taking off more time than any planner I know and have made good use of tropical beaches, tropical rum and more books than I should have really ever had the time to read. I majored in Politics during this time and had just one of the best mentors to guide me on which books to read and where. I also picked up my McLuhan habit around during this period and can't see why he hasn't been canonized. Its all there in much the same way that Stephen King inventor of planning's writings were more pure from reduced clutter and yet at the same time so prescient. I'm linking to Faris on this one because its one thing to be super clever, its another thing to be a regular and likable guy with that much brain power kicking around. Duty of Genius and all that.


That's bubbling sugar above, and is used to make those toffee fruits I've talked about. I think I'd like to share my favourite place in the world. Its Luang Prabang in Laos. Laos is an unreconstructed Communist country and possibly one of the richest (spiritually) countries in the world. The people unlike those in Thailand have been sheltered from breakneck economic growth and is the only place in the world I've seen folk on motorbikes tugging friends along on bicycles at a sedate pace while holding a conversation. This is when I realised that a slower life is what we're all looking for. All I need are a few books in Luang Prabang and I'm content. My next tag is John Dodds. John is a top bloke with one of best marketing bullshit detectors as well as a good sense of humour. Even if he does do work on the side for MI5.


What else. I've quite a track record in marriage and relationship guidance. Even though I'm a walking disaster at managing my own relationships I seem to have a face that enables people to confide in me in a way that suggests my advice is valuable and I'm grateful for that because it makes me feel that I can be trusted. I hope its because I'm a bit more direct than is good for me in most instances but its fair to say I've rescued more relationships than I care to think about now that I start to dwell on the matter. I'm going to link to Charlie over at Tantramar for this one because he's one of the cleverest and most creative people I know. Now that I think of it he's just the sort of person that What If should be talking to because he's done more stuff than any of us put together.

Finally I think I want to share that I once had a gun pulled on me in Stringfellows nightclub in the 90's. Its one of those improbable stories that litter my life and was completely unanticipated but I remember thinking how sobering it was to be on the end of a barrel and how for once in my life I just kept my trap shut in the interests of not making it onto the front of the tabloids the next day. Good story though if you ever catch me with nothing to say. I think my last link for this occasion and completely unrelated to that little factoid should be Fiona because she needs a little prompt now and again and is shaping up as a lovely blogger.

Recombinant Christmas Culture

Across Asia the desire to get into the Western tradition of Christmas spirit is quite notable. There are variations from country to country. Thailand as a Buddhist country or Indonesia as an practioners of Islam for instance don't celebrate the day itself. Thus Santa Claus (mashed up with Minnie Mouse above) are ubiquitous right across the continent at this time of the year, but often references to biblical characters such as Jesus or characters from the Nativity are erased. Worth a mention was the countdown on Christmas Eve at midnight. The crowd at the nightclub we visited, really went for it with more gusto than I've seen in many European capitals. Its fair to say that Christmas celebrations are beginning to transcend culture as a period of celebration that city dwellers (in the main) can find accessible.

This young lady was hamming up a little at the bar and shortly after left as if nothing had happened. A sort of faux intoxiqué if you like. I've experienced this behaviour across different cultures, genders and age groups and concluded that reasoning with these folk is the same as trying to reason with a drunk - completely unpredictable. Although they know what they are doing, they can play oblivious at any point. I do like the face in bar action going on here. Its the little touches that can convince. Merry Christmas Everyone.

Across the universe

everyone is not someone
someone is not a group
the group is not the crowd
the crowd is not you
you are the universe


Richard Buchanan - Tuesday 6th November 2007

White Swans

I've been borderline garrulous recently about a potential new model for the marketing communications business which is classic recombinant culture theory that I nicked off Faris. It would take some balls from an agency and even more from their respective clients to seriously implement but in principle it's about mixing and remixing some transmedia planning along with fair chunks of the book, The Black Swan which I talked about at length here.

To save a wee bit on time I want to cut and paste from that post:

"Our view of history is always explaining backwards as best we can. This is a linear approach that cauterizes the true story. Even more breathtaking is the idea that viewing history by working backwards is a fallacy, because history is actually always moving forward."

I ran this by Johnnie Moore the other night (you should check out his ace podcasts) at The Endurance pub in Soho while Piers was in town, and without even ruminating for a second, Johnnie cheerfully fired back that Kierkegaard wrote something similar as follows:

"Life is understood backwards, but is lived forwards"

This was the first seductive simplification that knocked me for six, and I scribbled it down quick on my hand because I knew it was, as are many of Johnnie's thoughts and occasional silences on lots of stuff, really important. It was lovely to see the ink on my skin the next day to remind me to give him a shout about it. I just did. Thanks Johnnie :)

So it's not like I've really discovered anything new, or I'm responsible for inventing anything seminal, but earlier today, as once again I ran the thoughts I've been bundling together on "transmedia-planning-meets-black-swan-mashup" by a generously attentive listener who works in the strategy game, she encapsulated the bit about The Black Swan that takes ages to explain. Describing narrative fallacy and how it leads to the illusion of predicatability that many draw from so called dependable data is not easy, and is actually probably just me trying to be too smart for my own good, but in essence Tania my listener, chipped in and captured the thrust of my long monologue with a lovely expression which she and her colleagues call 'the upside of risk'.

That made for two very seductive simplifications.

That'll do for the time being as I've still got lots of things about China that I'm practically bursting to blog about. So in the spirit of some timely recombinant culture media here is that White Swan I saw walking down the road in Marlow. The file wouldn't open from the Sony mobile phone when transfered to a Sony Vaio PC which Rob has nothing to do with, so instead, I've squirted a Nokia N95 mobile phone video on to it. I may come back and rotate it to portrait, if I find someone who can actually do important stuff like that, but in the meantime here's a White Swan doing a 'Black Swan'. Or put another way, a bird walking down a street that is right up mine.

Darkie

ybboey

It was on my first trip to Burma in 2001 that I knew something was going on in a global cultural sense that I should try to understand. I was traveling light from one military checkpoint state to another when I saw the only sign of dissent in the whole country. It was a gang of youths dressed in cheap baseball hats and basketball vests playing of all things the unmistakable genre of Rap in Burmese. They were doing no harm but for sure they were saying things suck in Burma, and that's a fact because in Burma they really do.

I guess the reason for my incomprehension was that I didn't 'get' Hip Hop or Rap. I thought it was the lowest common denominator of music to dance to. Anyone could do it. A couple of gang gestures, a bobbing head and some Yo Yo exhortation meant that anyone was down with the bad asses. But it wasn't working for me. I couldn't see why people loved it so much and would frequently walk out of clubs in protest, as I always do if the music is rubbish.

Then I got some education.

Some years on from that Burma trip I was with some friends and invited to hang out in a bar on Royal City Avenue (RCA) in Bangkok called Hip Hop. The crowd were an unpretentious and friendly bunch and the music was really rather good when the DJ dropped a Diana Ross Hip Hop mix that blew me away and I knew what the problem was. I'd been listening to bad Hip Hop for all those years.

A conversation with a very smart DJ friend of mine helped also to clarify that Hip Hop was a culture, a movement and not just a genre of music and so now I have no problem hitting a bar for Hip Hop, but like all my music tastes I'm just a bit fussy about what I expose my ears too and need something that makes me think as well as feel.

Well yesterday I came across yet another brilliant Smashing Telly recommendation called The Hip Hop Years. The Origin of Hip Hop. Its on another level and sucked me in for the full 2 hours and 20 minutes 7 seconds. Its completely delicious and to ignore this fine documentary is probably on a par with ignoring the impact that Rock & Roll and Punk had on popular culture. Hip Hop is constantly reinventing, has embraced all genres of music from death metal to classical and brings young people together from the South Bronx to Burma.

But the reason for this post is that I've noticed something while globe trotting and parachute planning in a few countries. I've never come across an African or Afro Caribbean planner. There are plenty of great Indian marketing folk that I've worked with, but I'm starting to get the feeling that planning is predominantly a middle class, Indy music loving, Caucasian pursuit and that is most definitely not a good thing. As I've made clear elsewhere homogeneous advertising is made in homogeneous agencies. As far as I know only two three London planners have expressed an interest in the world's largest and fastest growing music genre and it leaves me asking a difficult question. Are we OK in advertising when it comes to rebranding a toothpaste from Darkie to Darlie but failing abysmally when it comes to black culture? Because if so, we are not representing.

Educate yourself and watch this seminal video.

What I'm Thinking

javiekitela

Mark Lewis from Planning from the outside blog, in San Francisco has generously tagged me as one of the blogs he thinks about, in the 'blogs that make me think' meme. I probably read way to many blogs and there's loads to choose from but here's a quick five and why.

Made in England - Simon Cook keeps me highly amused (if not rip roaring laughs), has an eye for visually refreshing and provocative graphics, design and art, is a keen observer of life and seems to understand how to make digital most compelling.

Make marketing history - John Dodds is actually one of the tightest marketing thinkers in blogging right now. He posts small and easily digestible but important guidelines as we inch forward into a new model of selling through communication.

Zero Influencer - David Bausola has one of the best de.licio.us accounts that he feeds into his blog. I want to do an interview with him at some point and find out how he gets hold of all the good stuff on the net.

TIGS - An obvious one but I'm a fan boy. We're in the business of storytelling and it takes someone who really understands the breadth depth and history of language to put into words some of the more complex ideas that are evolving in this very exciting time to be in the marketing communications business

Capt. Pancreas - doesn't have forever like we all seem to think we have and behave as if we do, its a short hard lesson in how to drain the sweetness out of every second and a highly compassionate reminder of how lucky we are.

There really are loads more and some that I look forward to digging back in the archives for nuggets I've missed so no slight intended for the those that know I'm a regular reader and think about a lot.



Update: Yes I know its six I've listed (this is after all punk planning). I'm going to be at the breakfast club tomorrow from 11 am for coffee and hello if anyone would like to drop by :)

The Usual Suspects

Faris Yacob

Jenny Owen & Hugh MacLeod

George Parker

Charles - The White Album

Faris George Jenny & Hugh