BOW+ARROW

Even if you haven’t seen the movie, I’m sure you’re familiar this now famous scene from Zack Snyder’s movie, ’300′. It’s that beautifully CGI’ed portrayal of the Spartan army withstanding Xerxes’ first parry at the Battle of Thermopylae; the classical epitome of stoic resolve against incredibly imbalanced odds. But what’s the word for it?

Lately questions like these keep popping into my head. (What’s the word for that little fizzle of smoke that appears over exasperated cartoon characters’ heads?) I got to thinking maybe I was too busy at work, but an informal poll showed that it wasn’t just me. Some of the responses to my question: ‘Armageddon?’ ‘Overwhelmed?’ ‘Tuesday?’ And my favorite so far, ‘Middle Management.’

When I sat down to write this post a few weeks/dozen projects/hundred Change Requests ago, I was tempted by the thought that ours is a uniquely 21^st-Century dilemma. (What’s the word for when every generation thinks it’s the end of the world?) Then it hit me, plunk. Maybe, sometimes, there simply are no words.

As a copywriter turned small agency owner turned creative director, I’ve seen, time and again, that visual solutions to communication problems trump great copy, just about every time. (What’s the word for when you need a PPT chart to explain your job?) This is increasingly relevant to me as our clients’ products become increasingly complex—Fabric Computing, Optical LANs, Subsea Repeaters are just a few things I know far too much and far too little about—and the markets we play in become increasingly fractionalized and crowded.

The digital world lobs a sky full of arrows at us consumers every day. Companies need to find the most efficient way possible to help people understand their product and form an immediate emotional connection to it before, plunk, the next Skype message starts to blink. Enter the impactful visual. Maybe this is why the iPad is one of the fastest adopted technologies ever? I think it’s one of the first devices to deliver on the promise of making technology truly transparent—almost visceral. But, ultimately, maybe it’s just an all-around amazing visual experience. (What’s the word for when you go to look up directions on Maps on you iPad, then click to Satellite View, and 30 minutes later realize you’re exploring an underwater trench in the middle of the South Pacific?)

So, as I board a plane to visit a client and prepare to discuss whether a 60-second video should have more than 10 seconds of voice over copy attached to it, and the arrows plunk plunk plunk around my shield, I keep telling myself: Keep it simple, keep it visual.

What’s the word for that, again?

At least once a week, I walk three blocks from the PJA office to The Harvard Bookstore. Browsing for 15 or 20 minutes clears my head, and I usually walk out with a book that I never heard of and certainly never planned to buy. That’s the beauty of a traditional bookstore. You’re bound to make surprising discoveries.

I’ve also been guilty of surreptitiously writing down titles that I plan to order later on Amazon. More recently, I’ve honored the signs posted around the store: “Find it here. Buy it here. Keep us here.”

In the most fundamental way, those signs spell out the enormous challenge facing independent bookstores. How do they compete with Amazon? As a marketer, I’m intrigued by that puzzle and have wondered if there is a viable strategy to ensure the success of wonderful businesses in the face of an industry giant.

Recently, I talked with Jeff Mayersohn, the owner of the store. He passionately believes in the future of physical books and that bookstore play an important role in the community. He’s also a smart businessman and has seen sales increase month over month for the past year.

To share some of Jeff’s wisdom, I wrote about his marketing strategy in my most recent blog post for the Forbes CMO Network.

Jeff ‘s story makes a great point about counterintuitive marketing. He took an insight that was not immediately obvious and used it to build a strategy that has given him an unfair advantage. That’s ultimately what the best marketing should accomplish.

The next time you visit PJA, I’d be happy to take a walk with you and visit The Harvard Bookstore.

While most of my day is spent doing Project Management things – creating schedules, managing resources, reconciling budgets, moving things forward, saying “no” – I do have other interests. There has been a lot made of big data in the press. Splunk’s IPO was very successful and highlights the attention given to big data. Splunk, as its cave exploration name suggests (splunking), is a tool for exploring and making sense of the darkest depths of data. Most of big data’s application is on operational research. But there are obvious applications to advertising. Understanding behavior patterns and improved demographics come to mind.

Data exhaust is a new term for me, but the concept is relatively familiar. We all know that Facebook, Twitter, Google, Amazon and, if you’re really paranoid, the entire internet is following you and capturing your every click. And that’s largely what data exhaust is: the recognition that everything you do leaves information that can be captured and analyzed like the exhaust from your car.

I imagine we’ll hear a lot more about big data in the coming months. It’ll come in the form of updated privacy policies and user agreements. One of my favorite iPhone toys is Path. Unlike Facebook,  or most other social media tools, it’s about sharing your life with a small collection of close friends and family. One of the most distinguishing features is the user interface. Path recently sent out their updated user agreement and I want to read it for clues about where they’re going next. Will they use all their data exhaust to attract a buyer? Instagram made itself attractive to Facebook in large part because it’s so dead simple to make a good looking photo and share it with your friends. All that activity must be incredibly attractive to Facebook. I’m sure all the stuff I share in Path will also be attractive to someone. I’m just excited to find out who it might be.

I need to get back to something more concrete like the familiar and satisfying predictability of a project plan.

I’m really excited about a new campaign I’m working on. It has got a great media mix: TV, online, mobile, radio, and print. Print?

In the last few years I can count on one hand the campaigns I’ve planned that included print. In only one was it the focal point of the media. So, in the age of experiential marketing, mobile advertising, iPads and Facebook, why get excited about print? Print is dead, has been for about thirty years. Right?

Wrong.

Why do we as marketers need to take a fresh look at the value inherent in advertising in magazines and newspapers? Because we may have decided print was boring, old school, not relevant – but our customers didn’t.

According to a research study on simultaneous media usage conducted in 2010, magazine readers are the least likely of all media users to engage in other (non-media) activities while reading. Consumers pay attention when they read magazines. Ad recall – a measure of ad effectiveness for magazines – has grown 11% over the last five years. And 53% of those recalling ads took action as a result of seeing that specific ad. I wish I saw results like that with online!

The Magazine Media Fact Book provides more data on the effectiveness of print. Consumers – even younger consumers – feel more positively about the information provided in print advertising than any other media, with the exception of television. Print also drives positive comments about credibility, convenience, and repetition. When was the last time a print ad annoyed you?

Magazines rank #1 out of 16 media for consumers having a positive and credible impression of advertising and #2 only to video games for consumers enjoying the content at the time they saw the advertisement. Magazines provide more “bang for the buck”, increasing purchase intent five times as much as television or the internet when looking at how each medium alone affected purchase intent.

So who are these magazine readers? No surprise that boomers prefer magazines to television and the internet. But GenXers and Millenials rate magazines higher than television and radio, second only to the internet. Magazine readers spend more time online and are more likely to purchase online than television, radio or newspaper consumers. They also fit the early adopter and  influencer targeting criteria.

What a powerful weapon in our media arsenal. Magazine readers remember your ad, are more likely to respond to the call to action, and are more likely to buy what you’re selling. Combine that mix with television, online and mobile and this is going to be a kick ass campaign! I’m really excited!

The headline for this blog post is certainly a mouth full, but a recent corporate initiative and marketing campaign by the outdoor retailer, Patagonia, and its “Common Threads Initiative” certainly fits the description.

The goal of Patagonia’s “Common Threads Initiative” is to lighten our environmental footprint and get consumers to consume less. Patagonia is doing this by getting people to purchase gently used Patagonia clothing through eBay.

By taking a pledge to consume less, Patagonia and its customers are promising to:

Reduce: Don’t buy what you don’t need.

Repair: They’ll fix what’s broken.

Reuse: Sell or pass it on to someone who needs it.

Recycle: Keep your stuff out of landfills, and finally.

Reimagine a world where we take only what nature can replace.

Some of you will say that this is “green washing.” If you’ve never heard the term, green washing is a form of marketing spin to promote the perception that an organization’s aims and policies are environmentally friendly.  But in the case of Patagonia, a company who drives so many different initiatives to promote and protect the environment, this program is far from a green washing effort.  Why, because Patagonia is asking their customers to purchase recycled Patagonia clothing, not new products, and this is completely counterintuitive to Patagonia’s goals as an organization to drive sales for their bottom line.

Sure, the “Common Threads Initiative” is part of a larger marketing initiative to gain customer mind share, but if they can get consumers to think just a moment about how purchasing new product impacts their personal carbon footprint, I’d say they’re doing a tremendous job.

If you haven’t seen the advertising campaign, that launched on Black Friday in The New York Times, with the headline, “Don’t Buy This Jacket,” it challenges individuals to sign up for the initiative and think about what they’re buying and the effect on the environment.

There are certainly many organizations promoting ‘sustainability’ and ‘environmental’ concerns, but there are far fewer companies actively encouraging you NOT to purchase their product and taking money away from their bottom line.

Patagonia truly practices what they preach and behaves consistently with their brand messages to improve the environment. That makes me a brand champion for Patagonia.