ouroboros

What's more fun than answers? QUESTIONS!

I was asked to identify the typical questions an interactive strategist seeks to address when grappling with how to solve a particular client's business problem.  These were the ones that came immediately to mind:

(1) What is the consumer journey through the idea and how does that experience evolve over time?

(2) Vis-a-vis social media, how is my brand ALREADY ENGAGED in this space (twitter feeds, websites, CRM efforts, social media outreach)?  What permissions do we have, and how can we leverage existing social capital?

(3) What are the CURRENT conversations around my brand/objectives (e.g., on user-powered customer service sites, via google/baidu results, on social nets, etc.) my campaign will be wading into?  Are their clear issues that need to be tackled/addressed, or opportunities to meaningfully participate?

(4) What are the conversations I want to have (or hope to inspire) and where will they be most effective? 

(5) Traditional planning sets a goal of defining a brand's 'voice', but generally it's applied to mass communications.  Interactive planning asks "what is the brand's voice when it speaks one-on-one?"

(6) How do we dynamically engage in conversations with consumers (e.g., will the brand reply directly to queries and posts?  Will an agency partner? What is the approval time for replies? etc.),

(7) What is the technographic profile of my target (what devices do they use, how do they use them, how do those devices/experiences mesh/complement with real world activity, etc.)?

(8) What does success look like (e.g., traffic, leads, buzz, conversation density, buzz, etc.) and how will it be measured?  Has the client bought the RIGHT success metrics?

(9) What is the "value" the brand provides the end user in return for their attention/engagement (e.g., social/economic/entertainment)?

(10) How are we facilitating peoples' ability to SHARE their brand experiences with friends?

(11) How am I "findable" (e.g., what links to me? How are we playing SEO to optimize visibility? What will people looking for us type into Google? etc.),

(12) How is the idea participatory?

--- not an exhaustive list, but does this adequately cover the big points?  Please let me know your thoughts...

\o/ FrontlineSMS Makes Us Better \o/

Ken Banks (@kiwanja on twitter) is an honest-to-goodness tech hero.  When much tech-related news and developments wallow in wonk and wank, or seem aimed at folks with more daily discretionary spending power than many global households make annually (PS3 Home launches!  Waaa waaaaah), Ken's FrontlineSMS (@frontlineSMS on twitter) is a free piece of software that enables NGO's and grassroots organizations worldwide to communicate rapidly and effectively with geographically dispersed groups using basic text-messaging (SMS) technology.  If you can get a signal, you can communicate/aggregate/congregate/advocate.  And it works in spite of the natural disasters and power outages that regularly cripple other tech solutions. 

Just how far ahead of the curve is Ken?

After a year of exhaustive research and millions spent, Larry Brilliant's Google.org announced (at TED 2008 last year) that they'd arrived at the conclusion that an SMS-enabled tool could be a good idea to invest MORE time and money to create a team to build and research and prototype and maybe, just maybe, deploy.  Net: according to Google, it would take years and millions to do, in effect, what FrontlineSMS had been doing for years.  Like announcing in 1973 that a moon trip looked "feasible".  Proof yet again that insitutional hubris and groupthink can blind even the smartiest of smartie-pants to nimble people with a passion doing a reverse windmill dunk over them.  [See "Salamis"]

Sure W+K sells soda and sneaks better than anyone, but we love passionate folks using innovative technologies to make peoples lives better.  We were honored to work with Ken on his web presence and logo - both of which had to work on low speed connections and use text characters (since many folks would interact with them only via text message).  BTW - the logo we developed with Ken is ASCII friendly and does some great stuff when you paste it into skype.  seriously. 

And it looks good on a button (see photo above).

\o/

London's Theo Izzard-Brown @ Short and Sweet

Should you find yourself on Dray Walk on a Monday night in London, pop in to the Short & Sweet Film Festival @ Cafe 1001.  If you'd been last night, you'd have caught the debut of Theo Izzard-Brown's 'Aesop', made over three weekends for the princely sum of three and a half quid (for plasticine).  Worth every pence.

If you weren't there, you can watch it NOW!

Other features included:

David Byrne/Fatboy Slim/Dizee Rascal

Marco Puig's 'JoJo the Dogfaced Boy' music video (this is just the trailer)

The video for No Social's The Shortwave Set

and

RunWrake's The Control Master

Also in the queque (but I couldn't find their videos on YouTube) were...ah heck. A few others. Go Theo!

Filed under "Better than a stick in the eye"

W+K = Adweek's global agency of the year.  And we have our founders to thank.

people get a hold of tools and use them to create new vehicles of value

SMS was originally defined in 1985.  Originally envisioned as a notification system to announce email or voicemail receipt, the tool hit kids, they ingested the capability and spat back out a new form of communication - TXT.  It became an $80 Billion dollar industry.  Here in the village below Devi Garh, a silversmith in a storefront uses a piece of brass pipe tubing (into which he blows) and a lamp to create a blowtorch.

Below, his shop, wife, counter display and end-aisle.

India Continued

for all the helpful folks who reminded me that this blog "isn't flickr", I really appreciate your support.  And just in time - a few more images of the shenanigans:

Morning:

Nusrat, Claudia and Iris:

a Royal Enfield motorcycle - still being made the same way after decades,

Tom in the streets:

Ganesh getting ready for dinner

Tuesday Devi Garh

Why is the blog covered with sweeeeeeet pictures of India?  Because the heads of each office get together once a year to talk about the current and future state of W+K.  And this year we're outside Udaipur at the Devi Garh. 

Below, Shanghai supertroopers Iris Lo, Kel Hook and Frank Hahn ponder presentations on the parapet.

The recently installed fire supression system:

The back porch:

The side porch, looking down, mid-afternoon:

Sunset, upper back porch:

We are incredibly lucky to be here.  Boggling place. 

The rooms are cheaper than the carbon credits we had to buy to offset our air travel.

 

Tuesday Morning, Devi Garh

Morning in Devi - Dave Luhr arrives...

Monday in Davi Garh

Kel goes local.  Frank non-plussed.

PB+J

Driving back, from the temple to Devi Garh

These young folks chased our car asking for my kidney.

The ceremony in which Jelly was anointed God-King of Udaipur. 

A surprising twist for the evening's end.

 

Mumbai to Udaipur

Boarding at 5:55AM local

Takeoff

Udaipur airport, 7:55 AM

5:55AM local, Mumbai Domestic airport

Our flight to Udaipur was scheduled to leave at 5:55AM.  After spending four sleepless hours in the lounge, home of delicious muffins and loudly snoring folks, it was off to the boarding area.  Notice how tired and blurry everyone looks.  Except John.

Airport Wall Carving

Jelly, learning there's a chance he might have had to sit next to me for the Mumbai/Udaipur flight.

Mumbai Domestic

Dan, John, Me, Tom and Jelly, after flowers grew from our chests in the 18th hour of travel.

Mumbai domestic was under construction only weeks ago.  New rooms, gleaming marble, fresh concrete and paint.  And at 3:15AM local, some parts of the place are pretty dark and freaky.

Mumbai Airport, Pt.2

We made our way through the post-midnight dark to the minibus.

Jelly loads up some bags:

Then Tom gets lei-d by the driver:

Jelly smiles for the multimedia computing device, Frankfort airport, 1PM local

Frankfort bus high muckety-muck confab

Tom Blessington, Dan Wieden and Claudia Villareal on the Frankfort terminal tram.

  How Claudia looks this fresh after 10 hrs and 58 minutes in the belly of Lufthansa's finest is beyond me.  A secret known to her alone.  And John Jay.

Frankfort Airport - John Jay on the move

Don't even try to keep up with John.  Because you can't.  You just can't.  Here he is moving at just below the speed of light on his way to (a) the exclusive launch of a new Lufthansa scented manfume at a Frankfort airport duty-free shop, (b) take in the opening of a young undiscovered german artist/designer who crafts busts from his own bellybutton lint and shredded birken bags, or (c) open up an ultra-exclusive underground dance club near terminal B.  Or all three.  And he'll do it ALL before you catch up.  And he'll look better than you doing it.  trust me.

Trip to India: PDX, dan checks his N95

Flight to India