Conversations With Tea

No?

Posted by: David Wall on: December 13, 2009

What's the exercise here? To write a short email with one purpose in mind: to introduce people to have conversations about subjects that just keep cropping up in this blog, rather slipping consistently through the cracks… (I gave myself 10 minutes)

Where will these conversations occur?
Start on Twitter and go wherever they naturally do.

Conversations about what?
What happens when how we normally do things and long-held beliefs no longer stands in an open market? What happens when traditional advertising no longer works? What's the alternative? When traditional business models can't be justified and are no longer effective in the market – what happens? Where is this all going?

The context
A general pessimism is even more apparent now than ever before with things like corporate-speak, political "promises" and traditional advertising veneers that say nothing really about what a business is really like. Not only economically but socially we are subject to trends in the "open market". The market is also subject to our attitudes and opinions because they influence how we chose to spend.  

So the market is always adapting – the speed of this adaption is also subject to our beliefs and  traditions. AND, although a lot of things appear to go on as they always have – things are changing dramatically beneath our feet. Again - what is happening and where is this all going?

Here goes…

Email subject: No?

This is a challenge to look at things differently. I want to confront what we're grown to believe by exchanging ideas. I'm interested in how our present situation affects lagging concepts from our past – this is very evident to me through things like:

- social media
- the availability of information on the internet
- a general pessimism of commercial-speak and traditional marketing
- we can fill in the blanks….

There are no conclusions, rather arguments, mixed opinions and generally a clearing of the air. 

But this is not for you?

If ideas should fester, disappear and aggravate us like sharp stones trapped in our shoes, then – no. 

OR if a catalyst is needed for change to occur, starting with the exchange of ideas with no particular agenda, then – Yes.. 

…to having conversations that need no conclusion about things that really matter!

Posted via email from Pixelalchemy holistic web page marketing

Do ad even need to make sense anymore?

Posted by: David Wall on: December 10, 2009

I don't think they do. Perhaps the more sense they make, the less potential disruption to what's expected occurs – rendering them less noticeable? I'm not actually that moved by the whole disruption strategy of traditional advertising but a disruption to normality – that's artistic. And lets face it advertising has always been tailing art (just to be controversial).

This is not art (by no means…or maybe), not anything grand and it probably makes some sense if you think about it. The great thing though is the idea came to me on the train this morning and with the help of a trusty ex-post production wiz Agus, in no time we whacked up something I'd much rather watch than a commercial…

Posted via email from Pixelalchemy holistic web page marketing

Social Media Marketing – an Economy of Experience?

Posted by: David Wall on: December 10, 2009

Take the "media" out of social media and you're left with the word "social". It's easy to be tangled in metrics about what makes social media successful and overlook that simple point. Facebook and the like suit our present communication needs, so we use it. It works because connecting with people through social media is easy in a time starved and an otherwise disconnected daily existence.

How many of us find emailing someone next to us at work far easier (and quicker) than starting a conversation? It's often much simpler to say happy birthday to a close friend on a social network than sending a (paper) card – great for trees but not so good if you're trying to sell birthday cards…

Have a look at the huge growth rate of social media over the past few years - it takes about 10 seconds to watch the little blue dot representing Facebook.com bubble up and eclipse everything else in its path between 2006-2009. We'd expect a similar trend if the Interaction Consortium did a worldwide piece. The US, for example has internet users checking Facebook every 37 minutes, they post to Flickr 5 times a day, watch YouTube for 2.5 hrs a day and update Twitter every 3 hours… according to Razorfish.

But stats and technology aside, we're still in the realm of social significance. Whether a brand communicates outside or within social media, we need to question: does it provide value or hold any significance in our social exchanges? In other words, will anyone talk about it? Would anyone really care?

A Razorfish survey puts it bluntly: "Consumers don't want conversation with brands – they want deals". We can just as easily say "…they want value". And it's easy to offer value in terms of deals – a discount / a "free coke and fries…" but when a product offers value just with an association to its brand – that's an exchange we're more than willing to pay for.

Speeding down this technological highway we're leaving commodities and services for experiences posts Laurel Papworth. Deals are great but in an "Experiential Economy" they're only as good as the experience we want out of them. Who would go for a 50% or even a 99% discount from a product that has 0% value to us? An experience that no one wants, even for free would have next to no takers (apart from a few freebie hunters).

"The best job in the world" is a prime example of the value of experience. The experience of typing on a keyboard is just that much better from a tropical beach bungalow than a crammed office – even with walls decorated with snow peaked mountains, climbers scaling cliffs, sail boats etc. above words like "leadership", "direction", "motivation" and "Freedom"…

The point is "real" experiences are what makes social waves. If the service or product offered are the best vehicles to these, they'll be big waves!

And the experiences don't even need to be direct – most of the time they're not. It's even easier for a brand to offer experience by association. Like the teenage boy branding himself with his favorite band, absorbing more of the lifestyle and experiences the band promotes the more paraphernalia he buys.

Hear more at Sydney Social Media Marketing 2010 Bootcamp – The Era of Marketing
Learn more from Laurel Papworth,Tourism Queensland Marketing Manager, Robyn Quinn (The best job in the world campaign) and other industry leaders at Sydney Social Media Marketing 2010 Bootcamp – The Era of Marketing

And talking about deals deals deals…
All friends of Photolibrary can take advantage of this special offer: Delegates will be entitled to a 15% DISCOUNT… we all love a good deal!

Posted via email from Pixelalchemy holistic web page marketing

stsooys tbh cya wknd wb??

Posted by: David Wall on: November 11, 2009

I like Bourdieu. First he's got a very French sounding name that gives him instant philosophy street cred (first name is also Pierre) but that's not a good reason to like someone. A better reason is that he's said long ago that the purpose of a lot of what we do or say is to distinguish ourselves from others. We develop strange languages to isolate ourselves from other groups, while hardening the glue within our own group. We create 'secret' codes as a way to know if we're 'in' or 'out'. 

True, he talked about the privileged class trying to keep out the plebs who just don't get things like "high" art  (why wouldn't they get that when you put a urinal in a gallery, it becomes art?) but why not apply this to other tribes like kid's SMS language – what does "stsooys tbh cya wknd wb" mean and if you don't know you were probably born before Netscape was the choice browser.

So people are always going to create new spaces and new languages to distinguish themselves from everybody else and before this space reaches critical mass there's a bunch there already figuring out clever ways to get in and sell a lot of something. This is like adding more oil to the water and bound to disperse the congenial gathering fast – look at what happened to MySpace: more people on it, more marketing budget spent on it = less 'cool' / less the choice online communication platform. 

Now look at the business hype about using Twitter, is that good for Google Wave?

Should we think less about the technology and more about why they are using it?

Posted via email from Pixelalchemy holistic web page marketing

Twitter spammed full of marketing messages?

Posted by: David Wall on: November 11, 2009

Some interesting reactions to the Toyota Yaris agency showdown. Toyota hosts an agency battle for social media triumph on a budget of 15K each… 15K is lunch money for them, but the trophy awarded to the hippest, most social media-savy agency (judged by Toyota's marketing team) is priceless and is sure to be a fine statement in the "pool room".

Here's the info: http://mumbrella.com.au/the-yaris-social-media-chase-one-green-bean-and-the-population-take-early-lead-with-hothouse-catching-fast-saatchi-saatchi-in-neutral-iris-non-starter-11262#comment-20508

Social media commentator Laurel Papworth, hits backs with a clever YouTube video:

Think the video hits the nail on the head!

What happens when a interruption style marketing over-saturates places people go to escape it? People move elsewhere…

When Twitter gets spammed full of marketing messages, we’ll all start to ignore it…

Although I’m kicking myself that I didn’t get a lift from Wolfy (read Mumbrella post) when the train broke down in North Sydney last week – instead walked the Harbour Bridge in sweltering heat!

All the while though, Toyota Yaris which is not yet released is gaining more and more attention, aided too greatly by Laurel's video and posts. So, is negative attention in the social media space really negative? In other words, will you buy Cheeseybite (formerly known as iSnack2.0)? Don't think I would.

Who’d have thought – we’re selling to human beings, not robots?

Posted by: David Wall on: November 10, 2009

VW's "Fun Theory" campaign is a good example of clever viral marketing but I don't want to talk about that. You've probably seen and heard this blurb. I think it's worth mentioning the idea behind the claim and what that says about the way people interact with brands.

Firstly, if you haven't seen it yet – check it out:

The implication is that if we lined up 2 equally good products or services the majority would choose one over the other based on fun. Does that mean all products / services need to be fun? 

No, but it's worth looking at the process, the means of getting there (how we learn about the company, when doing the purchasing etc.). The traditional idea preaches the value of "getting in, taking what you need – then getting out" or the quickest, most simplest way for consumers works the best – no holds barred. We're all time starved the argument goes etc.

In reality, we're time starved – yes, but we're also starved of authenticity, we're starved of communication that connects with us on a human level – the sort of communication that says: "hey, you're not just another entry we want to add to our CRM you're someone that appreciates things outside the same old experiences we're used to – here's something fun, something interesting or inspiring – and here it is not because we want to make an extra buck out of it, but we just like it, its fun for us – might be for you too…"

Who'd have thought – we're selling to human beings, not robots?

Test Blog Post

Posted by: David Wall on: November 10, 2009

Testing the post

Business Console CMS updated via email

Posted by: David Wall on: October 20, 2009

Using Posterous, I'm now able to update my main blogging platform as well as a whole host of social media destinations with just one email. One of these is Business Console – the backbone of the pixelalchemy website (actually the first post to be published via this platform).

Why is this good?

A key factor in social media marketing is distribution, however distributing content across a number of sites is time consuming – all those logins / passwords to remember and administration interfaces… who has the time! 

Although, I usually have email open first thing, so a simple email to post@posterous.com does the trick updating my Twitter status, Facebook (and fan page), Flickr, BlipTV, WordPress, Scribd and more more etc. etc.

Oh, and another great feature is the ability to add video, images, documents and music just by attaching the files - nifty huh!

Yet another good feature – add a YouTube URL and it embeds the player for you…

This video is relevant to the previous post:

Pixel Alchemy | Transforming Pixels to Gold
www.pixelalchemy.com.au

Make it Simple Stupid – Posterous

Posted by: David Wall on: October 14, 2009

If everything was this easy we'd save ourselves the time to be on holidays most of the time and still get things done. Now that's a big call, it’s worth making big calls because I've got your attention thus far (because you just read that last line!).

Seriously though, it’s taken me a little over 30 minutes to add all my online accounts which will be updated with this very post. So apparently we're able to add video, documents, images text etc. all from your email account to be distributed across the vast social media landscape. 

This is actually the big test so I'll be adding a some video, an image and why not a document or 2. 

The video I'm hoping will be posted to a YouTube / Viddler / Blip account, the image – WordPress / Flickr, the Posterous blog. To be honest I'm not sure how but will soon find out! 

Download now or watch on posterous

EIA006EIAG00125613_s.mov (212 KB)

Collaborative internet

Posted by: David Wall on: October 6, 2008

It strange that a piece of music is almost like buying a piece of land. I read somewhere that indigenous Australians couldn’t fathom the idea of owning land, maybe akin for us understanding the idea of owning a piece of air.

I guess the whole idea is about building on the exposure and social interactions of the internet. A lot of successful online ideas usually have a collaborative nature to them – YouTube, Facebook, MySpace etc. In stock photo industry there’s iStockphoto apparently taking 55% of all stock usuage in the North America, I remember using Last.FM a bit (is that an equivalent in the Music Industry?)

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