Some things that matter to me

The digital divide is no more

Here’s another piece on the "tech divide," and how the knowledge and capability gap between traditional and digital agencies appears to be closing, as evidenced in work like W+K’s Old Spice social media campaign. There’s some really great insights in here about what’s driving the change, but I think it could go a little further.

As I explained in my AdAge article on a similar topic a few months back, some agencies have already closed the gap, completely. It’s not a question. And in my mind, the conversation should be over. The talk should turn to the work and away from what type of agency is making it.

CP+B has been an integrated and digitally-centered organization for almost a decade. From Subservient Chicken to multi-million dollar e-commerce sites to social media to new platforms to mobile and enterprise systems, we’ve done it and driven business results in the process. And even more significantly, we’ve also built brands with our clients in the process. Something no digital agency can claim.

It’s always been my belief that there are fewer great idea people than there are talented and well-trained technologists and that it would only be a matter of time before the best traditional agencies would become ‘technology-enabled’ and capable of doing exceptional interactive.

As the industry moves forward, you’ll very likely see more and more press worthy and innovative thinking come from the so called ‘traditional’ set.  Pure utility without story is soulless, and consumers still need to connect emotionally with brands in order to build affinity and preference. To find success in the post-digital world, you’ve got to be able to create something that people want to talk about. It may be a platform, yes. But it also needs a culturally sticky idea.

The agencies that have a history of building brands, changing pop-culture, and that have also successfully integrated technologists into their creative process and departments will have a decisive advantage in creating and developing the next set of ground-breaking digital marketing case studies.

It’s going to be an exciting year as far as digital marketing innovation goes. There are indeed more people at the table. And as I mentioned in my previous piece, clients can stop thinking about which traditional, social, mobile, and digital shops to call and start thinking about which ‘marketing agency’ may be right for their business.

You can read the two articles here:

-Adweek, “Closing the Tech Divide” - http://bit.ly/aCCs21
-AdAge, “Give Shops More Credit for Work that Bridges Digital Divide” - http://bit.ly/bS6zgU

Tracking the hurt

I recently started using my Garmin 705 more actively to track my bike rides and overall fitness. For those of you with Garmin set-up, check out http://www.strava.com. It’s a pretty fun tool that came out of beta not too long ago. It’s easy-to-use, includes some cool data visualization features, has a pretty active community, and integrates well with my social networks. The only bummer is that I only have a few more free data uploads. Though it’s $59 for a year. Not too bad a price. These guys have done a nice job with the service. Now just to get my numbers to look a little more impressive.

A producer's definition of crowdsourcing

I’ve spent most of my career working as a producer, breaking ideas down to their core, figuring out what they are, and how they should work.

Over the past year, I’ve read and heard a lot of talk about crowdsourcing, and it’s mostly questions about what it means for the soul and future of our industry. What I haven’t heard a lot about is what it actually means. Blame it on a good buzz word, but everyone seems to be caught up in the effect rather than the what. As a producer it’s hard for me to skip the what.

When you break crowdsourcing down to its essence, it takes on a relatively familiar shape. It’s Web 2.0 + freelance, or more specifically, aggregated, online freelance. The only thing that’s new about this idea are the websites and tools that filter and bring the communities together, though a site like TopCoder has been around since 2001.

Crowdsourcing sites make it easier for small businesses, brands, and agencies, to access and activate freelance communities, at lower cost, and that’s a very cool and powerful thing, but even great tools don’t remove the baggage that comes with having to lead and manage a freelance and virtual workforce.

The best things we’ve done since I’ve been at CP+B, particularly in the digital space, have been a result of co-located and cross-disciplinary teams working together. But even the successes have come with challenges, and it can be hard getting people to work together well even when they sit next to each other in the same building. When you add physical distance, different time zones, tight timelines, and a lack of shared work culture and goals, it gets a whole lot more difficult to do effective, press worthy work. It’s not impossible, but it takes more time, and in the marketing world, that’s not something we have a lot of.

Crowdsourcing has a future. There’s no doubt about that. It’s a smart way to open up the ideation and design process, as well as empower consumers to take a more active role in your marketing efforts. But as good as the Web collaboration tools are today, the toughest creative problems, more often than not, get solved faster and more efficiently by teams sitting and working together.

For that reason, we’ll continue to experiment with and incorporate the latest and greatest collaboration and social media tools into our work, but as far as our business model goes, the premium, for the foreseeable future, will be placed on creating an evolving work environment and process that enables better teamwork. Original A-team style.

That’s how we get results. And that’s what our clients are paying for.


A July snow moment

It was a shot five years ago, but I just came across this pretty stunning ascent/descent of the Grand Teton by Doug Coombs and friends. We’re still a ways off from ski season, but this is worth a watch for any fan of Coombs’ or big mountain skiing. This is the real deal. Enjoy.

http://www.thesnaz.com/2009/11/11/the-otterbody-experience/

Killua at the start

Pretty sweet pic.

Bermuda Race - Team Killua

The 2010 Bermuda Race starts today in Newport, RI.

It will be my father’s 19th race and 3rd in his own boat, Killua (pictured).

Here’s wishing Team Killua the best of luck.

I’ll be checking in on the action here through the iBoat application: http://bit.ly/bERVX8

You Know You Love it, Wrigley Field

The ultimate digital stalking tool

This week we launched our new beta site for MDC Partners. The site allows users to track and connect with MDC executives, learn about our agencies and leaders, and browse all relevant financial information. Please use the site, do some digital stalking, and let us know what you think. You can email your feedback here: mdcbetafeedback@cpbgroup.com