"All our knowledge has its origins in our perceptions." Leonardo da Vinci
"For the mystic what is how. For the craftsman how is what. For the artist what and how are one." William McElcheran
"The end, the goal, of any organization, of any brand is to create customers (or clients, users, members, donors, fans, etc.), and you accomplish that goal by continually innovating to add value to their lives." Tom Asacker
Today's image: Le Grand Irs by Fred Winston. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.
Last year an international trade association invited me to participate in a retreat for their member CEOs. The topic of the meet was how to communicate more effectively, internally and externally.
What the association engaged me to prepare was a talk about delivering a good talk.
One of the points in my presentation was "Always deliver a provocative beginning, the audience is bored." Three illustrations were used.
One involved a newly hired exec. Recruited to take an also ran rock station to #1, the mission required the exec to step up and lead a format fight with the heritage rocker. The new guy attracted major attention day one.
Dressed in camouflage, he arrived in a helicopter, landing in a field directly across the street from the offices of the primary competitor. His single purpose - to declare war on boring radio - putting the competitor and the market on notice. He championed the cause of rock music fans, delivered a bit of fist shaking, game-changing oration, making front page news and history in the process. His passion and the audacity of this performance art galvanized his staff. The "event" generated significant word of mouth within the buying community putting the station (and the format battle) on the radar.
Some may not appreciate the use of military metaphor, others might allow it but not be able to pull it off, most would have found the helo ride too daring and risky. As a provocative and memorable beginning it worked. Read about it here.
Previously: Radio - Local direct selling is changing, the new scorecards of accountability and transparency, here.
Homework: Read Ball of Brand Confusion, the latest thought piece from Tom Asacker. Highly recommended. Get the writing via PDF here. Kudos, Tom. Well said. My thoughts on the issues raised by Tom coming next time.
Lesson from the second tribe of wireless:
Don Day writes More on the webcast model via Lost Remote here. Good overview Don, thanks. Here's some of it...
"'It’s about not about ‘moving’ viewers to the Web,' MSNBC.com’s Gina Stikes wrote. 'Many are already there. It’s about engaging them on their own terms, on their own turf.'”
In May, MSNBC.com served 15.7 million Nightly News videos, up 71% year-over-year after a massive video-centric revamp of the Nightly News site."
My sense is Gina has it right. Delivering content on the viewer's terms. The next step is about getting into the complimentary business of export and stopping the obsession with driving any single strategy of import. Main pages are becoming increasingly irrelevant. The objective should be engagement no matter the delivery or method. Your digital assets need to be discoverable and export friendly.
Kurt Hanson chases basically the same issues but from the radio pov here.
Save the date: Coming next Tuesday, June 17, Firefox 3 [more info]. This blogger is lovin 3.0, RC2. iPhone app store opening still set for July 11.
Buzz: Jeff Weiner, likely leaving Yahoo! to take an entrepreneur-in-residence gig.
Congrats & cheers: Michael Arrington celebrating TechCrunch birthday #3 (and he's just getting started, good for us). Diablo Cody written The United States of Tara gets backing from Spielberg and the green light from Showtime. Nicholas Carr on his latest writing in The Atlantic Is Google Making Us Stupid?. Radio sales and marketing rock star Michael Damsky named DOS at WLS & WZZN.
