HolyCow

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London Business Book Club

I just wanted to publicly thank Catherine Crawley (aka @topicalfool)
for organizing the London Business Book Club at the Slug and Lettuce
in Hanover Street on Wednesday night. It is a relatively intimate
setting which makes it even more fascinating as it is like 'an audience
with' or rather an 'unplugged' version of what someone like Mark
usually does infront of lots of people. Very inspiring and lovely to
have people not in the marketing 'frat' posing often incisive and thought
provoking questions to the Herdmeister himself.
Apologies for not remembering everyone's tags or names but it was great
to meet you all.

It was also really great to catch up with John Griffiths - the 'Godfather'
(@johngriffiths7) of planning communities - who let's remember started
all this stuff way back in early 2000 - 9 years ago!!! with the first website
dedicated to the craft of planning: Planning Above and Beyond.
Brilliant. Oh, and there were more people than the pics suggest btw!

Anyway, I think the Business Book Club idea is brilliant - and I love the idea
of sharing a book and discussing it, plus, having a really interesting author
there to share his/her thoughts about why they wrote what they did.
I clumsily forgot to bring one - which was naughty. Next time I shall bring
something to share properly Catherine I promise!

In the meantime, there is another one on Weds 9th Sept where American
author: Jonathan Salem Baskin writer of "Branding only works on cattle"
will be doing his stuff.

Apparently 'he is a true contrarian. He'll challenge, he'll make you think,
he might even change the way you behave and act about branding forever.'

Should be good! See you there - and bring a book with you :)

Freedom found

'Volare' in Brown Hart Gardens W1 (M. Hancock)

Just thought I would share this as I found myself 'wandering and
wondering' last Wednesday around London and came across this
amazing little park on a terrace above the Duke Street electricity
sub-station opposite Selfridges.

I have often walked passed it and wondered just what on earth it was
and whether you could actually get onto it. Well it transpires that you
can and its a little oasis of calm with all the restorative power of an
Indian head massage to strip you of any remnants of the insanity of
Oxford Street. 

The sculpture above was created by Lorenzo Quinn who is one of the
world's leading contemporary sculptors and the son of the late actor,
Anthony Quinn. How extraordinary is that! 

He has this to say about the sculpture:
'Volare' is freedom! It means to open ones arms and feel the unabated
expression of happiness flowing through every pour of your fingers.'

It is stunning and I spent ages staring at it and feeling inspired.

 

Brown Hart Gardens (Colin Wing)

Anyway, they have lots of events on in Brown Hart Gardens
throughout the year so check their website, or if your into unusual
and secretive stuff then check out the London Gardens Trust - they
have a list of other neat little gems like this. See you there :)

Multi-dimensional thinking.

I came across this piece earlier today on the ever fabulous BoingBoing
which was originally posted on the site by Cory Doctorow who got it
from a site called Imagining the Tenth Dimension. Phew that's the link
bit sorted. The actual site has even more thought provoking stuff on
it about quantum mechanics and string theory and all that really
good stuff to support a book written by a guy called Rob Bryanton.

Bowloftoast on the site sez:
"This is a short animation that takes the viewer through a progressive
description of all (and all possible) dimensions, up to and including
the 10th. It is an elegant introduction to the fundamentals of string
theory and a mind-blowing toe-dip into the pool of the metaphysical."

Yep just about sums it up. It seems appropriate to look at this stuff now
as we seem to be increasingly able to handle more complex notions
about the world around us than we ever could previously - a sort of
collective intelligence thing and perhaps the beginning of a new
Enlightenment that seems to be doing the rounds currently.

And with all science faction (see what I did there?) it may be right -
or it might not be - no-one can really prove it, but it does force us
to re-examine our notions of reality and how things really are.

Marketing Geometry and Scenario Planning:
One thing for me that it throws up is (although the book was actually
written in 2006!) is that it paves the way for new ways to look at everything
- advertising and marketing in particular.

I have been thinking a lot about what will come next with the cult of the
individual being supplanted with the cult of the crowd and the Herd etc.
and I believe that we will stop thinking about trying to change behavior
at the individual level and more about how to influence positive emotional
responses through the creation of shared interactions. Some work has
already begun in this space currently as we know but very little and usually
and unfortunately in the hands of Social Media Experts - 'Enthusiasts' in my
book not 'Experts' as too few have any classic marketing theory to back it up.
Another post another time.

The implication is that we will need to strategically reconfigure planning's
role to include the creation of multiple parallel and simultaneous effects in
the same way military planners do when considering strategic offensive
operations. But unlike that kind of scenario planning with its military jargon
(target, impact etc) I see the structure that pops out being more akin to
geometry with ratio's, rates, proportions, polarities, ordered pairs, mapping,
isometry and the like to capture the narrative as it plays out.

I shall post more about Marketing Geometry and Scenario Planning later
as it is a separate thought but not unconnected.

In the meantime, pull up a seat, get the popcorn in and watch the video.
It is truly wonderful :)

What will become of 'us'?

I came cross the top left piccie of Faris the other day on a PDF entitled
Are All Ads Spam? in a piece for something called 'The New Next' - not
entirely sure why I saved it - 'cept it does have some interesting bits about
all advertising being spam unless it adds value. I thought at first it was
connected to Chris Brogan and his manifesto sorta thing (worth a read
incidentally) - but I can't find a link there to the article and it doesn't seem
connected. I digress.

Anyway, the thing that struck me (and I'm sure you) is how he has changed.
I wanted to post it for a giggle really as the later pics are - well - somewhat
'different', and it reminded me about the conversations I have had many times
about Keef and how on earth he ended up looking like he does now.

And then syncronistically this appeared on Facebook last night...

...which is a rather neat little thing from Fast Company: to celebrate the third
series of MadMen which aired on Aug 16th:

...which has Faris as Harry Crane - erm - no actual resemblance and actually
not that much in common really, but heck, its great to be recognized in that
way right?

Anyway - that's not the point. The interesting thing is that the pic of Faris BH
(Before Hair) was all fresh faced and sincere - and the second AH (After Hair)
has taken on a sort of messianic appearance, and well, we all know what
happened to Keef.

So I am left wondering how much personal transformation or style is a
result of circumstance and context - it' s the B.F. Skinner in me folks -
or does it work the other way round - we are what we are and then things
happen as a consequence of that. Interesting as outlaws in popular culture
mostly define the antithesis of tribal behaviour  and yet are often the most
revered, and yet we are constantly looking for the things that make us like
everyone else from a brand planning perspective.

And  therefore could the secret of success in future be to look less like
everyone else - be more individual rather than play to the community
perhaps? Have to think on this one as it seems to run counter to a lot of
what is being written currently.

And then yet even more syncronicity this morning as Rory and the IPA
posted a very interesting book and also seminar to come to by a chap
named Geoffrey Miller who has written this:

Spent argues that many of our product choices are driven by the desire not
to feel good, but to look good, by displaying our evolutionary fitness to those
around us.

Apparently it goes beyond the big 5 trait displays (watch out for that meme in a
presentation near you soon): openness, conscientiousness, extroversion,
agreeableness and emotional stability and provides some clarity as to why we
are like we are and why perhaps we look like we do.

I shall have to wait to read it but in the meantime perhaps Faris himself has
some answers for us...

P.S. Not sure if this will work actually but here is a link to the file mentioned above:

Download NewNext_ME_AU06

Andersons not Free here:

Bizarrely the edited free version of the new Chris Anderson book
Free seems to have disappeared from the link below. Which is a
pity as I was rather enjoying it. And then it struck me that as it was
in fact only 'free' for a short period of time - it was sort of going
against some points he had made about 'Freemium' (actually
coined by someone else entirely in 2006). And probably indicates
that his stance on giving it all away free and not really caring
where his IP  ends up or that his was most pirated book on stalls
in China but he didn't care was actually bollocks. Which all rather
undermines the whole thing surely?

And another thing - when I saw him at the ICA he basically went
through chapters 1 and 2 which were about how the old razor King
gave the handles away free so he could charge for the razor - and
of course the old color printer Vs replacement cartridges etc. Yep
got all that - its called a 'loss leader' or is certainly used to be when
I was being slapped around the head with a wet Kotler and Armstrong.
And - his book was on sale in the lobby - not even free - which made
me chuckle at the sheer sort of Emperors new attire moment being
played out.

And I wanted to ask him the question about the loss leader strategy -
which I sort of thought was actually the whole point of his book but
cleverly re appropriated as 'Freemium' - giving something away for
free or below the profit line in order to make a sale somewhere else -
but felt awkward in case I wasn't thinking straight. But on reflection
perhaps I was and the whole Longtail meme has actually just
been exhausted.

I doubt I will be buying a copy of the book in future because it is a one
trick pony - got the bit about Freemium then you've kinda got it really.

Oh, and I had to delete the original link as it kept jumping to the top.