Vienna – World’s Best City to Live – Again
For those of you that know me, you know that I love going to Vienna. Aside from having the coolest tram (designed by Porsche) it’s just a very beautiful, friendly and scenic city. And it’s ranked #1 again as the worlds best city to live in. Check out the article from CNN.
And on of my Favorite places in Vienna, Fischerbräu, picture from one my Flickr Vienna Sets
Black Friday Boasts $816 Million, Up 26 Percent vs. Year Ago
#SOSUS
Black Friday was up 26% over last year. Let’s see what Cyber Monday brings for etailers this year! And there was even some pepper spraying to keep things lively.
comScore reported U.S. retail e-commerce spending for the first 25 days of the November – December 2011 holiday season.
For the holiday season-to-date, $12.7 billion has been spent online, marking a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.
Black Friday (November 25) saw $816 million in online sales, making it the heaviest online spending day to date in 2011 and representing a 26-percent increase versus Black Friday 2010. Thanksgiving Day (November 24), while traditionally a lighter day for online holiday spending, achieved a strong 18-percent increase to $479 million.
The full version of the press release is available at: http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2011/11/Black_Friday_Boasts_816_Million_in_U.S._Online_Holiday_Spending
Social Media and Going Viral
Every Monday I look forward to seeing the cartoon that Tom Fishburne comes up to start the week off. This weeks cartoon was another nail on the head for digital brand marketers everywhere.
Recently, I was working with a friend and she was asking about how to create a viral strategy for her product launch. My response – same as it always is when agencies or marketers ask this question – “Viral is not a strategy, it’s an outcome”.
Brands and their agencies spend a lot of time conjuring up “viral strategies” and on a good day about one percent actually go viral. And for the ones that do, it’s truly a combination of stellar creative, an excellent story and a payoff (for the consumer) that has a great and fun twist. And a many of the most successful viral campaigns are not what most brands would consider “brand safe”. For the brands that understand the differences between strategy vs. outcome and how to push the envelope of brand safety, the viral world is yours to enjoy!
Writing Well in The Workplace – A Lost Art?
IMHO, one of the side effects of the cacophony email we all troll through every day, is that we have lost some skill in writing well in the workplace.
Recently, I was in the midst of writing a company-wide email. As I was editing, I peered over to something I keep posted near my desk. This list of tips always helps keep my written communication at the office in check and helps ensure I’m writing clearly and as concise as possible. I thought I would share.
I would enjoy hearing your thoughts.
Outline for Management Communication
- This (recommends, analyzes, answers etc): All communication should start by telling the reader what you are doing and why they should read it. Add a 3-5 sentence executive summary. Finish with who concurs with your work.
- Background: Short, direct summary of the salient info that the reader needs to understand your proposed action or summary.
- Summary of Analysis or Recommendation: The meat of the document and what the reader needs to understand or what you want them to do.
- Basis or Rationale: Why you believe what you do. Keep to a maximum of three. Anything after that the reader will not retain. Rank in priority order
- Rejected Alternate Solution: Optional. Should be used when making a reco and is your second best choice. Use when you know the reader wants to look at a certain area but you decide it is not the best course of action.
- Next steps: What you propose to do, by when and by whom. Use numbers if you want to sequence. Use bullets if no particular order is necessary
- Close and cc: your signature and copy any appropriate parties.
Decisions
“Should I stay or should I go now?
Should I stay or should I go now?
If I go there will be trouble
An’ if I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know!”
- The Clash
Although The Clash was signing about something a little different, do you think the inner monologue of Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs may be a bit similar at the moment? There is a lot of buzz about Gibbs being pursued by Facebook to be their next head of communications. Clearly Gibbs is well suited for the role but methinks if Facebook really is after him, it is about much more than communications and more likely his deft skills at navigating the sea of lobbyist and policy makers in Washington D.C.
One simple reason why I could see Facebook wanting Gibbs is their road ahead may be fraught with lots of government regulation issues around online privacy, data collection, etc. An in-house expert, like Gibbs, would be a significant advantage in dealing with potential government issues that may be ahead in the US as well as the EU. And then there is the equity upside for Gibbs at the hottest pre-IPO company in the valley.
Then again Gibbs could also go and work for Obama on the “Election Campaign – Part Deux” But shhh…it’s all still a secret with Gibbs for now
And since you all know I really like to grok about Online Privacy, here is a great primer from the friendly folks at the IAB
Hotel California
“Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!”
- Hotel California, The Eagles
I came down to Big Sur this week for a bit of a getaway. I love it down here and I have really tried to disconnect a bit and have barely checked email. Admittedly, I have done a bit of FourSquare check-ins 
A stretch of Rt. 1 North of Big Sur slide into the ocean last week, so getting here took extra time since the only way into Big Sur was from the South. This morning there was a slide to the South – so now I’m stuck in Big Sur until CalTrans clears the road. Gulp. I guess there are worse places to be stuck.
Idyllic Rt. 1
The Rt.1 everyone is dealing with this week. It’s a looong way down!
Privacy – What Advertisers Can Learn from the TSA
I’ve mentioned before that I really like many of the cartoons that @TomFishburne sends out in his Brand Camp posts. Today’s Brand Camp cartoon really hit home because it’s something I’ve tweeted about long ago.
I remember seeing this TSA sticker (below) posted on the x-ray machine at an airport I can’t recall in the blur of airport visits throughout the year. Although the sticker doesn’t ask me to “Like” the TSA, it does ask me to follow. Close enough. I have little interest in reading whatever it is the TSA blogs about, especially since I doubt they have a decent mechanism on their blog to actually engage (and make changes) with the flying public.
Three things I think brands can learn from this simple cartoon and sticker.
- Without an interesting message and a reason to truly engage, nobody wants to be your friend
- Transparency and trust is important – the TSA does x-ray your bag and put you through a sensor
- Be upfront and state the benefit – The TSA clearly states their expectations to travelers. The benefit for travelers is, barring any weapons or excluded items, travelers are permitted to the gates
In many ways the TSA reminds me of some of the privacy issues that are facing the digital media and advertising industry, when it comes to privacy. For example, if consumers had a better understanding (transparency) of how advertisers were using cookies or tracking pixels to provide a better service (targeted ads), I believe it could improve the relationship for advertisers, consumers and tracking technology providers. More importantly this transparency can lead to better self-regulation and ease potential over-regulation of Internet advertising by the FCC. And perhaps this could even work in the EU – I’m an optimist at heart!
Since I’m in a position to make decisions about these sorts of things, as the head of digital marketing for a large CPG company (see my disclosure), I have embraced what the folks over at Evidon are doing. Scott Meyer is leading an incredibly smart and passionate team at Evidon. In fact, I have even downloaded their Ghostery product. (The Ghostery icon reminds me of Blinky, that annoying ghost in Pac-Man that used to kill my Pac-Man!) The difference is that this ghost tells me who and what is tracking me on each site I visit – it’s pretty cool. And in the not to distant future the brands I work on will have this Advertising Option Icon on them.
The industry support for this program is great and growing. Just look at who is on board already. If you are an advertiser or a consumer, you should really check out this program of self-regulation.
It’s akin to what I hope will become a universal symbol for quality advertising online as well as complete transparency about data usage. This online privacy and data usage space has a long way to go and with a great partnership from within the industry (see above), I truly believe consumers will embrace ad data sharing, cookies and the wonderful world of targeted advertising. Who wants to see crap ads and ads from companies whose product or services for which they have no interest.
I will write a few more posts in the coming weeks about privacy, especially how to safeguard your individual privacy in the social graph – this will be especially good for a lot of college students that will soon be entering the working (professional) world, where showing pictures of keg stands won’t go over well with prospective employers.
As always, I would enjoy hearing your feedback. Ping me at @dougchavez or feel free to post on this page.
