Toellner Tells it

Life-Changing Experiences

TV "psychologist" Dr Phil McGraw has been quoted as saying that every person has five life-changing experiences that shape who they are. I don't know much about Dr. Phil's true credentials as a psychologist, but this seems to hold true for most people I've met.

One year ago yesterday, Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Southern Gulf Coast of this country. Shortly thereafter, four of us loaded up a car and went to help rescued animals just outside of New Orleans.  This event completely changed my life, and my perspective on life.  Seeing the devastating.  Seeing the people crammed in hotels and campgrounds.  Seeing abandoned animals.  Seeing people every day go up and down the aisles of the kennel searching for their lost dogs.  Seeing the tears when they couldn't find them.  Seeing the joy for the lucky few that did (from mammals with both 2 and 4 legs).

The following link is a trip diary that three of us from the trip put together about this experience. It changed my life.  Maybe reading it a little will help change yours. 

I'm out for a long weekend but will be back on Monday.  I hope you enjoy.

http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/katrina.php

The power of a small audience

Chris Anderson puts a post on the Colbert Report and pop culture on his blog -- the long tail.

http://www.thelongtail.com/

The OK GO video on the internet with the crazy choreographed dances (including the amazing routine on the treadmills) is a perfect example of how if you create true entertainment, people will find it.  They'll pass it along to friends, mimic it, and enjoy it -- and if it's good enough you become main stream enough that you'll appear on my favorite show -- the Colbert Report.

Chris says that this is a great example of the Long Tail.  I'm not sure I agree.  The Long Tail is all about the large numbers of small niche audiences.  At this point, Ok G has a fairly large audience -- with nearly a million views of their videos online, I think this no longer qualifies as the Long Tail -- but a sample of what can happen if you create something that is entertaining enough that you would have found an audience anyway. 

But it does prove that if you do something clever and creative -- people will find you.  And if it's good enough, they'll tell others.  That's when the value of small audiences becomes clear and they work to make it a large audience.  And next thing you know, some band that plays mediocre (but catchy) music and has strange but funny choreographed dance routines can become a big hit.  This never would have happened in the time when radio was their only outlet to popularity.  And I'm not sure it would have happened in an era of MTV.  But it can be done now...if the product is good enough.

Bringing outdoor to life

I'm not sure why, but I've always been infatuated with billboards that have moving parts, or are brought to life with 3D elements that make the board seem like a real life, breathing scene vs a 2D board. This one by Orbitz gum is a great example where the "workers" appear to be cleaning the teeth of the models in the picture.  It's intriguing...and brings people into the board saying "what's going on here?".  It's simple, and impactful.  What more could you want?

Unique Experiences

As the internet universe has expanded, people have been given millions of choices that they can make that makes an experience personal for them.

This desire for the unique has expanded to other elements of people's lives. Now, more than ever, people seek something that is unique for them, whether it be their own particular combination of the 48,000 different coffee options at Starbucks, or personalized checks, the demand is there.

Some places get it.

Archies Wayside Inn is a restaurant in LeMars, IA.  Archies has some of the best steaks in the country -- not surprising in rural Iowa.  But it's also worth noting that when you order Green Beens or tomatoes in season at Archies, they are hand-picked in the garden that is behind the restaurant.  This type of service and fresh-picked, home grown product isn't something most places can offer.  No one goes to Archies for the salad, but let's just say, putting a fresh tomato on your salad can make simple ice berg lettuce seem like fine dining.

This authenticity keeps Archies full almost every night...and is the type of authenticity that everyone seeks.  If you can find a way to deliver it, success is yours.

SoaP

Well, 1/2 predictably, the movie Snakes on a Plane (SoaP) failed at the box office this weekend with a paltry $14 million in box office sales.  I say 1/2 predictably because while the movie has all the makings of being a real stinker (what was Samuel L. Jackson thinking making this?) it also had some of the greatest internet buzz ever.  But does buzz lead to sales?

Generally, marketers consider buzz and word of mouth to be good. The book Grapevine by BzzzAgent founder Dave Balter treats word of mouth as the next big thing.  While he's right, on one level, it still takes great products to get people to buy.  Certainly if you have a great product, having people tell others about it is a great way to generate sales.  But just because people talk about you doesn't mean they're interested in buying, sometimes they talk about you only because its cool to talk about you.  I read a lot about SoaP prior to this weekend...but I had no more intention on going to the movie than I do in buying the next William Hung album. 

Start with making a great product that people want, then work on generating the buzz.

Niche Targeting - Coke

Since we've been talking about being invited to the cocktail party, here is a great spot from Coke that is specifically targeting the Grand Theft Auto crowd.  http://advertisingforpeanuts.blogspot.com/2006/08/grand-theft-coke.html

I think even non-Grand Theft Auto folks will get the spot, but the people who get it should really get the attempt of Coke to be involved in their world of conversation.  Even though everyone drinks Coke, this isn't an ad trying to reach everyone -- its target is only a very small group of people.  Coke understands that even though they have a mass audience, they still need to talk to them in small groups.

Getting ignored

Seth talks about how clueless people can show up at the airport and somehow NOT know that liquids are banned.

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2006/08/living_under_a_.html

He's right of course...people are busy, and strangly completely unaware of what goes on outside of their own little bubble. Or maybe they don't think the rules apply to them.

Regardless, keep in mind that the rules on water not being allowed on airplanes has been widely publicized.  And yet, some people don't know.  And the PR folks on this aren't trying to sell them anything -- they're only trying to help -- and still get ignored.  Think about how easy it is for them to ignore you when you're trying to sell them something.  Nothing is more important than being invited into the conversation...

Cocktail Party

Ernie Mostellar brought up a great analogy in today' post http://erniemosteller.typepad.com/tangeloideas/2006/08/viral_ooze_cock.html

"I've said this before:  Advertising used to be theatre.  Advertisers performed, and the audience watched.  Now, it's a cocktail party.  A smart advertiser works the room, joining in as many conversations as possible, with just the right people, and just the right panache, to be remembered (and hopefully talked about -- in a good way) by at least a few the next day."

It's no secret that our markets are becoming increasingly fragmented.  Not long ago we had 3 networks.  Even up until 1995, which was only 10 years ago, the average HH had only about 40 channels to choose from, and only a very few had ever accessed the Internet.

In 2005, the average household had over 105 television channels, unlimited video-on-demand offerings, broadband internet access with access to millions of websites, blogs and chatrooms, and 10% penetration of satellite radio with hundreds of stations at their fingertips.  All the while, with search functionality being so easy, its becomming infinitely easier for us to connect with people who have interests similar to ours.  We used to be limited to our conversations to what we had exposure to...but now, we have exposure to everything.  We used to join clubs of our interests...but we needed 10-15 people in a certain geography that shared the same interest in order to form a club.  Now, geography doesn't matter.  Now we can find 10-15 people anywhere in the world that share our interests and we can form a group -- and then others can find us. 

Unfortunately, the advertising world hasn't really changed its philosophies much.

We still train people that TV is a reach medium and radio is a frequency medium. Many places seem confused as to even do about the internet, and we still haven't wrapped our hands around social networking places like Myspace and youtube.

And so we continue to treat advertising like Ernie's theater stage...only, once we realized people weren't listening we started shouting louder and more obnoxiously.  All the while, our consumers were at their cocktail party, and we've come across as being the screaming obnoxious kid in the corner that is trying to get noticed and get his way.  What we needed to be doing, and what we NEED TO DO is be invited in to the converstation -- 10-15 people at a time. Tell good stories, send a good message, help people solve problems -- and LISTEN.  Then these people will tell others about their new friend. 

And we can then go out and make friendships 10-15 people at a time.

But it starts when we realize that we're not on stage anymore.  It's not about us, or our brands, or our creative.  It's not about sneak attacking our consumers with advertising where they least expect it.  It's about getting invited in...and doing something worthy of the invite. 

Without that, we'll soon be shouting from a distant stage with nobody listening.

Lack of the Personal Touch

I cleaned out the deleted items in my outlook today...at least some of them.  I bit the bullet and cleaned out everything prior to June 1 of this year. 

That's not really a blog worthy accomplishment.

But what was astounding is that I still have over 4200 emails in my deleted items folder.  That's 4200 emails from just the past 2 months (this doesn't even count those that I felt were important enough to file).  That's right at 70 emails a day -- counting weekends. And this is just from my work account.  Am I really that important?  Were all of the emails necessary?

I love email and the ability it gives me to get work done (I almost never talk on the phone any more) but I'm far from it's biggest abuser.  Which makes me wonder how many emails other people move each day...and how much "work time" is lost pushing email in and out of our inboxes. 

Are you "working"? Or are you pushing email?

Carpe Diem

Yesterday I talked about how sometimes you are forced into taking positions on things, because silence is its own decision.  Now the important correlary, once this opportunity presents itself, you must cease it like it is your one and only chance to make a difference.

Last week one of these opportunities presented itself to me...and I had no choice but to take it.  The Kansas City Neighborhoods committee met regarding the dangereous dog ordinance and our group, Kansas City Dog Advocates was given special permission to speak for 15 minutes.  The meeting was set up on 3 days notice, we got the invite for the speach on about 36 hours notice.  I had assembled a presentation that I'd used elsewhere, and was familiar with the material -- and by the nature of my job, I was one of the few KCMO residents who was going to be able to attend on short notice.

Let me first say, I'm not the most likely candidate to do this.  But the opportunity to do this was there and it was time to jump up and do it.

This is where the correlary kicks in, don't do it half way.  I presented for nearly 20 minutes.  I had details, I had slides, I had facts, I had applause from the audience (thanks friends!).  I think it was very good.  Kicking the bucket on this could have been devastating...It could have cost our group a lot of credibility.  Instead, the total number of people who have joined our group has increased pretty dramatically, we have several media hits, and two positive articles on pit bulls have run in the media since then (I specifically called out the media in my presentation for their unbalanced reporting).  We now have a big event with a special guest speaking coming in that will happen in 2 weeks.  What is happening is pretty unbelievable.

Don't do things half way... you may never get the chance to do it again...so step up and do it right when the opportunity presents itself.  Overdeliver.  It takes courage, but it's important.  I came across a quote last week from the FAst Company newsletter from Senator John McCain:

"You can live with pain.  You can live with embarrassment.  Remorse is an aweful companion...Whatever the unwelcome consequences of courage, they are unlikely to be worse than the discovery that your are less than you pretend to be."

Cease the moment.