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Image courtesy of the U.S. National Archives, via Flickr.

I’ve been involved in corporate communications for 25 years and still see companies treading the path of mediocrity with what they say and how they say it. Why? Here’s my one word answer: risk. The risk of being blamed if you stick your neck out too far, the risk of losing your job, the risk of a negative media response, and the risk of what your clients will think if you veer into uncharted territory.

Certainly it’s sound business practice to weigh up risk. But when it paralyzes decision-making and the creative process then the risk is to the brand’s reputation. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched great content get funnelled through the corporate sanitizing machine and end up a watery soup of corporate-speak and atrophied creativity.

Unfortunately this mass of low-quality content does the opposite of what it sets out to achieve – to engage clients and prospects and nurture leads.

Companies producing great content are courageous

Image courtesy of Penn State Special Collections, via Flickr.

I’ve said it many times over the years: “You have to be brave if you want to be a thought leader.” The same goes for brands and companies that want to produce great content.

But what is so brave about producing great content and what do you have to do to get there?

Start by looking at the work of brands like IBM, Deloitte, Booz & Company, McKinsey, GE, Dove, PwC, and Philips. Then think about process. For these brands, it comes down to three things:  research, planning and great execution.

In a post on the Content Marketing Institute blog, Robert Rose says that content should be managed as a strategic asset across the entirety of the organization. He makes the point that content should deepen our relationship with customers.

There are four key steps involved:

1. Research the trends and issues that impact your client’s business or sector now and in the future;
2. Plan content that addresses these issues or trends;
3. Package it in such a way that it is attractive, findable and shareable for your market; and,
4. Quality over quantity.

The global engineering firm, SKM, is exceptional at this. In my interviews with Dale Bryce, the head of capability marketing, he points out that the aim is to make thought-leadership content a “social lubricant for engagement.” That is, SKM gives its staff the freedom to enter into dialogue with prospects and clients between projects, and content is used as the catalyst.

Importantly, these conversations have nothing to do with trying to make a sale. The result is that SKM’s clients and prospects end up appreciating the brand for offering something valuable over and above a paid-for service.

But SKM’s staff don’t blindly initiate these conversations. Critically, they constantly collect client data, which has produced the following findings:

1. Their clients like receiving short, sharp, relevant articles from them.
2. They expect SKM to check in with them between projects.
3. They want to receive unsolicited proposals relevant to their ongoing success.

This is where well-researched and relevant content comes in. In one case, SKM produced a report on groundwater, which client managers could then give to relevant clients. Doing so opened doors: SKM provided a gift, that gift facilitated a conversation, which in turn led to business. In ideal situations, providing thoughtful content prompts the client to call SKM to invite the firm for that all-important conversation – and SKM doesn’t even have to ask for a meeting!

What should quality content do?

High-quality thought-leading content should:

• challenge those in your field of expertise to think about new approaches to existing or potential problems. GE’s Ecomagination campaign has been doing this successfully for a number of years and has helped companies re-evaluate the supposed trade-off between profitability and environmental performance;
• stretch your clients to think “What if?” IBM’s Smarter Planet campaign raises awareness of how better systems can solve some of the world’s biggest infrastructure problems;
• reframe existing debates (or frame completely new ones) and stimulate conversations around your point of view. The Philips Center for Health and Well-being is doing this by challenging conventional attitudes towards aging as well as how we can make our cities more livable and lovable;
• provide new insights on a particular topic area of expertise. The provocative Dove Campaign for Real Beauty forces people, particularly women, to re-evaluate what beauty really means.

And perhaps most importantly:

• hone in on the challenges and issues your clients or your targets face now and in the future. Two great examples include: Booz & Company’s Global Innovation 1000 Campaign and Egremont Group’s Head Office of the Future.

Do this with your content – express your opinions courageously and honestly – and the rest will follow.

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Pitchfork began as a bootstrapped blog back in 1996. Now it’s a bona fide, award-winning media outlet, complete with a video channel, music discovery app and festival. How do you define yourselves now?

We’re always one thing and that’s a music publication. While we have other elements, being a music publication is at the centre. We spent a lot of time being frustrated by the boundaries and limitations that were imposed on us by being in the browser. Not only was Pitchfork not tangible, it was hard to innovate.

That is until about two years ago, when suddenly everything that we used to romanticize about print and be jealous of, we could suddenly build on and use to redefine what it means to be a publication.

You have also just announced the launch of a print magazine, The Pitchfork Review. It’s a bold move for a digital-first publication. Why do it?

We often draw a parallel to when we started our music festivals. As a digital publication, we wished to recreate, for a moment in time, something more tangible. We had been to many festivals, so felt we could really create something special.

It’s a similar sentiment that explains why we’ve moved in the direction of print. Pitchfork was founded with inspiration from print/zine culture and at that time, the web was very confined. But that has changed dramatically. The innovation that we can now implement daily online is endless. That said, what always remains is the romantic and tangible nature of collecting – keeping something that means something for a long time.

Much like a record, putting a beautifully designed and content-driven publication on your bookshelf and going back to it over the years is an important thing, and one we do not wish to die. Creating something unique and elaborate – that was the goal.

So for us, the time was right to take cues from all the amazing things we do online and to contextualize it in a more permanent way.

From an editorial standpoint, Pitchfork has gone all-in on design-heavy long-form pieces. It has paid off in terms of accolades, but these kinds of features cost money. How do you make it worth it?

You have to make it sustainable, you have to structure your business – especially bootstrapped like we are – in a sustainable fashion.

At the same time, not only are there billions of digital ad dollars out there in addition to people who believe in long-form, quality journalism, but that audience tends to be very attractive to an advertiser. That’s not why you do it, but when you look at it, the answer’s right there.

It takes a while and patience, especially to build a trusting audience, but I think there is an underestimation of people that want something beyond fleeting. At the end of the day no one can really argue with the fact that you want to create something of quality and long-term value.

The ads on Pitchfork are very muted, but advertising makes up most of your revenue. Why is it so important to move beyond the banner ad?

Advertising drives 85 to 90 percent of our revenue. Muted or not, it’s an important focal point of what we do.

Much like we want to innovate in the way we’re publishing content and thinking about the magazine, we want to change the ways brands are able to distribute their message on the internet.

The world is ripe for experimentation and brands are more intent then ever on having an open dialogue about creating something unique that’s perhaps a little outside of their normal vibe. Our revenue continues to grow by leaps and bounds because of the way we’re able to innovate and drive value with our advertising partners.

Any examples of what that innovation looks like?

We did a program for Pitchfork.tv that won a Webby, called POV Concert Series with American Express, which was inspired by Major League Baseball. Normally, if you want to watch a game on TV, you have to watch from the centre-field camera, the left-field camera or home plate. We thought of that in terms of the live concert – what if you could switch through those different views?

We were trying to figure out a way to get it off the ground. American Express had a campaign at that point that synched up nicely. They gave us the creative freedom to do something we were proud of.

Being able to bring something into the world: That’s as good a thing for a brand as it is for us and our audience. But at the same time we want to be the ones that are creating it in the first place and not just to make money.

The notion of music ownership is changing completely: Before it was vinyl and CDs, now it’s subscriptions and streaming. How do you see this shift affecting the way people experience music?

Pitchfork’s Spotify app contextualizes music discovery within the Spotify platform.

Ultimately, the omnipresent availability of music is very exciting as a music fan. Having anything you want to listen to available within a few clicks or finger punches is amazing. That’s a dream come true for anyone who loves music.

That being said, there’s also an inherent problem with having 18 million songs in a streaming service because you don’t know what you’re doing or where to go. No one has solved that yet.

People need more than that base level “recommended if you like x.” If I’m on Pandora and I’m listening to No Age and it gives me the Replacements, I could probably connect the dots, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily where I’d go if I had the choice. There’s got to be more to it than that.

At the end of the day, as much as you need aggregators and things that just deliver you content and music, there is also a place for publications like us. And that’s kind of the future of media, and that’s also an archaic thought.

There is also something to be said about owning a physical artifact. Do you see the shift towards digital changing the way we interact with music and content generally?

Maybe I’m more than just a casual music fan, but there is part of me that is totally disappointed by the fact that it’s all available online because now everything is deletable. And I say that because it ties to content like Pitchfork.

You can download and throw away an MP3 in five minutes in the same way that you can click away from our website in five minutes. That’s a challenge.

It’s a disappointing reality that still needs a solution. People spend a lot of time creating and making their records and we spend a lot of time and resources writing about music. The last thing you want is someone to press play for five minutes and leave.

As much as you need aggregators… that just deliver content, there is also a place for publications like us.
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When I die, I don’t want to leave my daughter my log-in credentials to Amazon. That doesn’t seem right to me. I want to give her 5000 records. That’s maybe me being old school, but at least you’re working to build something that is ownable.

The idea of ownership is debatable, but really what it comes down to is the same issue Pitchfork is looking to fix as a publication: How do you make music not feel disposable?

It’s a big question. I don’t know where it will land. I’m excited to see, I think there are a lot of people with a lot of good ideas. When kids ask me how they can get into the music industry, I always say, “Fix it.”

All images in title are courtesy of Pitchfork

(Sidebar text by Eve Thomas) 

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Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade app is designed to help onlookers enjoy the parade – and find the nearest Macy’s store.

Thanksgiving – the long-weekend of gluttony that kicks off the holiday season in the U.S. (and by extension, everywhere else) – is pretty much the Super Bowl for brands. The trifecta of travel, food and shopping puts advertising efforts into overdrive.

But the drudgery of travel, pressure of meal preparation and the madness of Black Friday tend to make things stressful. According to a TripAdvisor Survey, that’s especially the case this year.

The survey found that more Americans will be on the move this Thanksgiving than last year, and more than half of those travellers will be turning to mobile devices – especially smartphones – to help them along the way.

These five brands are getting in on the trend with free and useful mobile apps that help users with everything from travel and meals to navigating Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Chowing down on Thanksgiving dinner

Chow’s Thanksgiving app gives easy-to-follow instructions for preparing the holiday meal.

The popular foodie website, Chow.com goes the no-frills route with its ultra simple Chow Thanksgiving Dinner Coach app.

For three years running, the app has been helping users plan and prepare their holiday meal, and nothing more. As the website boasts: “No one does it this basic.” The brand’s commitment to simplicity has earned it Gizmodo’s Gold Medal for Thanksgiving Apps, and a whole lot of satisfied stomachs.

No muss with Butterball Plus

The brand responsible for 20 percent of turkey production in the U.S. (that’s more than one billion pounds of gobble) is taking a bite out of the competition with its free app, Cookbook Plus.

Turkey lovers may not end up with a Butterball this year (the brand is suffering a turkey shortage), but the branded app can still be applied to its generic counterparts. What sets this recipe app apart is the thoughtful feature that acknowledges where and how the app will be used: voice command saves hands-on cooks from having to muck up their devices.

The Butterball Plus app is voice controlled.

Checking it twice with Amazon

Even though mobile retail spending is expected to increase this Black Friday, brick-and-mortar malls will still be packed with savvy deal-hunters, many of whom will be equipped with bar-code scanning and price-checking apps.

Amazon’s Price Check app stands out from the rest, however. It allows shoppers to compare Amazon’s online prices with in-store sales. The app also distinguishes itself with its variety of search methods, such as barcode scanning, photo and voice – simply snap a photo or say the name of the product and the app does the rest.

Amazon’s Price Check app let’s users take photos, scan or say the name of an in-store product and compare it to Amazon’s online prices.

AT&T gets behind the wheel

The AT&T DriveMode app blocks drivers’ incoming messages to keep them safe.

This holiday season telecommunications brand AT&T plans to raise awareness for its “Texting and Driving… It Can Wait” campaign by giving away its AT&T DriveMode app.

The 2013 campaign made waves this summer with the viral short film, From One Second to The Next by acclaimed filmmaker Werner Herzog. The branded app helps prevent accidents like the ones featured in the film by blocking drivers’ incoming messages and sending customizable auto-replies.

Macy’s reigning parade app

The U.S. retail brand has been a fixture of American Thanksgiving ever since it hosted its first parade in 1924, but its Thanksgiving Day Parade app launches the brand into the digital age.

The app is designed to be as useful and entertaining for those watching at home as it is for parade-side onlookers. It provides users with an interactive experience of the parade, directly connects users to the brand’s online store, and also includes a brick-and-mortar store locator. Which is handy, because for the first time ever, Macy’s will be open on Thanksgiving.

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The revamped sweden.se website is just the tip of Sweden’s rebranding initiative. What’s the backstory?

The Swedish Institute and the Council for the Promotion of Sweden Abroad, which are a collection of organizations working for the promotion of Sweden abroad, have had a joint communications strategy since 2007, but the strategy was lacking a joint visual design.

The joint visual identity, which includes the website, acts as a clear centre of information for Sweden. We also have a wonderful brand identity toolkit. We can just pick and choose which assets to use depending on the communication activity. This flexibility means we will be able to use our money and personnel resources to improve the content instead.

It’s important that the government prioritize this area, which we call public diplomacy.
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When it comes to nation branding, Sweden has it made. Thanks to brands like Ikea and Volvo and cultural touchstones like the Nobel Prize and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Sweden already receives lots of free publicity. So what prompted the redesign?

I totally agree that a brand like Ikea is doing a lot for Sweden. But in a highly competitive world where globalization and the internet are in one way making the world bigger and in one way making it smaller, a small country like Sweden which – sure – is doing well, still needs to be actively out there.

We know there is a clear connection between awareness and trust in a country and its ability to attract investors, talent, workforce, students, trade and so on. So it’s important that the government prioritize this area, which we call public diplomacy or nation branding.

Sweden’s new logo includes a custom font, Sweden sans.

With an emphasis on visuals, storytelling and context, sweden.se looks more like an online magazine than it does a government website. Can you tell us about the content strategy?

The original site was launched in 2002. It began as more or less an information database and then moved towards inspirational content, entertainment, and then to relationship building. We just kept adding things. Eventually we realized that we were trying to be everything to everybody.

So with the redesign, we looked at what sort of people come to an official website – because of course, visiting an official website is not top of mind for most people. We started from that point and built from there.

We realized that there is value in being an official centre of information when it comes to facts – not when it comes to dialogue or building relationships or even entertainment. We used to have a film room and a music room on the site, but we closed them down a year ago. We’ve really gone back to basics.

The idea is to offer correct and relevant facts about Sweden, contextualized and packaged in an interesting and inspiring way.

Sweden’s old site (bottom left) uses the traditional national three crowns emblem. The new responsive site incorporates the new flag logo.

As you mentioned, most people aren’t that interested in visiting a government website. Can you describe your audience and how that plays into your content strategy?

Many of them are young people – students and researchers looking for specific information.

They don’t go to an official source to get inspired – they want information. They want specific facts and of course, when they visit the site we would like them to stay and find out more, so we’d like to make it as inspiring as possible, but the core of the site is fact-based content.

The site’s Quick Facts category provides simple, easy-to-digest information about Sweden.

Sweden has also garnered plenty of attention for its Curators of Sweden Twitter project, which has stirred up controversy since its launch in late 2011. Some have called it a PR disaster, others call it good marketing. How would you describe it?

The Curators of Sweden project is a collaboration between the Swedish Institute and VisitSweden. We had a channel, @sweden, on Twitter and we wanted to activate Sweden’s brand values – so going from talking about freedom of speech and openness and transparency to actually proving them in practice, and in doing so, increase interest and awareness in Sweden.

We thought that by giving control to ordinary Swedes, over time we would also then build an authentic and updated image of Sweden, which is a little more nuanced than Ikea and elks.

Of course, when you hand over control, it’s not going to be a streamlined image. So far we have had three incidents, which some called “PR disasters.” I believe those incidents were really important for the project, because they tested and validated the concept.

If you talk about freedom of speech or transparency, everybody likes the concept, but when you actually apply it in practice, it’s not so pretty. Those incidents strengthened the image that we are an open and transparent country.

Time for a kärleksattack (love attack) from Sweden, with Timbuktu and ADL, two of my favorites: http://t.co/75jDeDbv4Z #swedenmusic

— @sweden / Bia (@sweden) November 22, 2013

Are there any protocols in place in case someone crosses the line?

There are a few rules: You can’t break the law, you can’t promote your own product and services and you can’t put anyone in danger. We don’t have an opinion about what’s good taste or bad taste. We’re not there to judge.

The idea is to have very different curators and different profiles offering different broad images of Sweden. We look at everything from geography to age, to gender, to religion, to sexual preference – the lot is represented.

And of course they need to be able to handle Twitter as a communication tool. It is a must, since things can get quite heated.

So far we have never deleted a tweet. We have engaged a lawyer a couple of times just to verify, but so far – knock on wood – we haven’t had to intervene. It’s an uncensored channel.

Do you think other countries could have done this?

The reason it works in Sweden is that it’s not a PR campaign, it’s actually a true activation of Swedish core values. It really is grounded and based in that, which makes it a very strong concept. Do I think all countries could do it? It depends on what core values that country represents.

The Swedish ad agency Volontaire was hired for the project. What did you learn from the partnership?

Volontaire was one of several suppliers that won a public procurement contract for general services within the services category “trademark strategy and concept development.”

Curators of Sweden was their first assignment for SI and VisitSweden. Working with Volontaire encouraged us to push our communications boundaries and think outside the box. But the courage to actually let go of control of an official communications channel is all on SI/VisitSweden!

In her own words

Frida Roberts explains the concept behind Sweden’s new flag logo:

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The thought of your brand becoming a media company may scare you. Let’s look at it from a different perspective, then. One thing that every company struggles with is content.

The ability to create content that tells a good story and integrates it across the digital ecosystem isn’t easy. So in order to feed the content machine day in and day out with a compelling brand narrative, you must become a content organization.

Storytelling is what drives a content organization. A content organization believes that content (not just marketing content but value-add content) is what drives behaviour change with customers, partners and employees.

A content organization has the right people, editorial workflows and technology solutions in place to help facilitate organizational change that will allow you to:

• feed the content machine every day with a compelling narrative that breaks through the clutter;
• provide content that matters to stakeholders; that comes from its stakeholders (employees and customers);
• create content in real time when the opportunity arises;
• build converged media models (paid, earned, shared and owned media integration) that translate into brand ubiquity;
• be agile and pump out content with little to no pushback.

So if any of this sounds good to you, please read on.

Here are four steps that can help you become an effective content organization.

Start with your storytelling principles

This is one piece that you cannot skip. Don’t be like other brands that post random content on Facebook and Twitter either because their competitors are doing so, or because it’s the “in” thing to do.

Most of the time they run out of things to say, or post irrelevant content. You will have to decide what story you want to tell and how you want to tell it. Your content narrative will consist of several inputs:

• The brand narrative – What is your pure brand message, positioning?
• Audience affinities – What is important to your audience?
• Non-business issues – What are the non-business issues that are important to the brand? (For example, sustainability, energy efficiency, ending poverty)
• Media perceptions of the brand – What does the media say when they write about the brand? The context, not the sentiment.
• Community perceptions of the brand – How does the community react to your current content? Again, the context, not the sentiment.
• Historical content performance – Performance data on what type of content works and what types don’t work, day parting, content types, etc.
• Search behaviour – What do consumers search for when looking for your products?
• Customer support issues – What are the support issues that most concern your customers?

The output will help you mold a story that your audience can actually relate to, engage with, and then share with others.  Additionally, a stellar content strategy should help you prioritize your storytelling principles and map them specifically to relevant social media and other digital channels.

Once you have your story, you will then have to decide how you want to tell it and who in your organization can help.

Tesla Motors derives its brand mythology from 19th century mechanical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla. Image via Tesla’s Google Plus page.

Think internally first

Media companies have people – a lot of people. They have editors, managing editors, assignment editors, writers, staff writers, freelance writers etc.

Brands have people too.

They’re called employees and they are most likely wicked smart too. What’s stopping you from mobilizing them to create content that delivers value? I’m not saying that you just open the floodgates and allow for a free-for-all.

You’ll have to create a plan, establish processes and workflows, and maybe start small with just 10 or 15 employees. Once you demonstrate a few wins and best practices, you can grow from there.

And don’t forget that employees are viewed as trusted and credible sources when people are seeking out information about a product or service. It makes sense. It’s a win-win for everyone involved. A few platforms that enable employee advocacy are Expion’s product Social Advocator, Addvocate and Dynamic Signal.

A group of brand advocates congregate at a charging station for Tesla’s Drive Free campaign. Image via Tesla Motors’ Facebook Page.

Expand beyond the firewall

If you have a good product, then most likely there are groups of people who already love you. They have a deep level of emotional equity associated with your brand: the way it makes them feel (Dodge Ram = tough), the value they extract when using your products (Toyota Prius = inexpensive, great mileage and good for the environment), or the fact that they can save the planet and be pretty cool at the same time (Tesla Motors Model S).

They are called brand advocates. Enabling advocates to help tell your brand story is a huge opportunity and, in fact, there are several platforms available today that can facilitate this: Social Chorus, Influitive and Branderati.

The Tesla Motors website features a consumer-facing media page devoted entirely to the Model S.

Build the content supply chain

Once you have your narrative down and your internal teams and customers ready to feed the content engine, you will have to build a supply chain that can facilitate content ideation, asset management, approval workflows and content distribution to the channels you manage – blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

This could also include .com publishing and paid media opportunities as well, considering the importance of the creative newsroom and converged media modeling.

Content organization or media company? It’s the same thing. The point is that you have to change the way you think as it relates to content strategy, engagement and the way your teams are staffed.

If you don’t think that your brand needs to change then you are still living in the 90s, when consumers were less distracted with technology and the Internet.

This excerpt, adapted for Sparksheet, is from the book, Your Brand: The Next Media Company by Michael Brito. Used by permission.

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Zuckerburg has taken it just one tab too far.

I was okay with the privacy setting concerns. I was okay with the liberal usage of my personal info for the sake of advertising. I was even okay with their attempt to create a near universal currency – Facebook Credits – that aimed to totally eradicate modern consumerism as we know it.

But this? This is too much.

The recently launched Timeline layout takes your entire Facebook history and organizes it into a neat, easy-to-creep chronological history. With just a couple clicks, visitors to your profile can now time warp back to your earliest days online. If you’re a Gen Y’er like myself, that probably means your old back & fourths with high school sweethearts and bickering acquaintances are now instantly viewable by people like, say, your roommates, family members, or perhaps even your boss.

In other words, the apocalypse is here.

It’s one of the biggest in-your-face changes that’s ever been made to the service, and one that will prompt many users to re-evaluate their relationship with the platform. In my case, it led to a drastic social media cleanse, which I documented in a post titled The Night I Deleted 83% Of The People From My Life. I was not alone. Countless friends and readers responded to the piece, telling me that they felt the same way; the social network experience was just becoming too big a beast to responsibly maintain.

Timeline has the potential to distort both how we think and the way we’re observed. Let us examine 3 areas of concern in increasing order of severity:

1. Old Wounds (emotional nuisance)

Whereas previous generations were forced to rewind old mixtapes or visit kitschy ice cream parlors to pay emotional homage to their old beaus of yesteryear, we can now revisit and over-examine our past relationships in about the same amount of time as it takes to check the weather.

It’s not just romantic ghosts – think of all the dated social affiliations and connections you’ve accumulated throughout the years. Digging up gossip fuel and incriminating dirt on one of your friends has never been easier. A new browser tab here, a clickity click there, and presto! You’re now free to sift through each and every interaction you had with the people you once held true to your heart. It’s like pouring salt on old wounds. Or perhaps, more accurately, browser cookies on weakened firewalls.

God I hate the Internet.

Perhaps a stronger and more emotionally evolved person would be able to treasure this newfound opportunity to revisit past relationships. I’d rather saw off my left thumb with a sea urchin. To each their own, I suppose.

2. Judgment of Character (professional liability)

I started using Facebook when I was 16. You remember being 16, right? No? Let me refresh your memory. You sucked. Like myself, you probably said a lot of dumb things trying to impress people or be funny. Perhaps you even discussed Wham! That’s expected of you. After all, you were a kid. Never fear - assuming you were born before the 90s, those silly notions are but distant memories, safely nestled away exactly where they belong: in the past.

My generation is less fortunate.

Our entire dopey adolescence is documented online in great detail. And since many of us – having grown into adults and young professionals - now have Friend Lists that include coworkers and even bosses, the availability of said conversations/photos/thoughts is alarming. Would you really want your supervisor or director leafing through a personal journal you kept in the tenth grade?

This is particularly distressing when you consider the increasing popularity of social media background checks as potential employers begin to sift through your online profiles with an increasing degree of attention and scrutiny. After all, they don’t want your social misdemeanors to shine poorly on their company. One can only imagine how difficult it would be to find a suitable candidate for prime minister had today’s politicians been tweeting since prepubescence.

The pixilated skeletons in your digital closet have never been easier to uncover. Perhaps it’s time to change the locks.

3. The Ability to Forget (psychological cancer)

In his book Delete: The Virtue Of Forgetting In The Digital Age, Viktor Mayer-Schonberger looks at the cumbersome mental effects that archival tech mediums have wrought upon us. Thanks to the digital revolution, our capacity to remember is as strong as our nearest internet connection. The distant past has become no further than a few clicks away, making our personal histories inescapable and clouding our ability to make unbiased contemporary decisions.

In other words, it’s difficult to focus on the present when it’s so easy to look back on what’s happened in the past.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for preserving memories. Matter of fact, it’s something I wish I could do a better job of. I wish I took more pictures or recorded a daily journal. The ability to continually revisit and learn from the past is one of the greatest blessings modern technology has provided us with. But I think recollection is far better when it happens on a macro-level. I much rather reminisce via the collective feelings and memories that have permanently burned themselves into my mind, as opposed to referencing an old wall-to-wall my friend and I had about 2 Fast 2 Furious five years ago. There’s a reason you remember certain things, right?

Analyzing your past will become a far more daunting experience when you can instantly wade through thousands of pristinely preserved conversations and exchanges. It’s sensory overload and it could hurt us. Wouldn’t it all be so much more genuine if we focused on what we remember vs. what we have archived? If we began to spend more time looking forward and less time curating what’s behind us? I have a feeling it just might make things a lot more enjoyable.

Then again, maybe I’m just petrified of my past.

Brook Johnston is a copywriter for FUSE Marketing Group in Toronto.

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While everyone is preparing their objectives and to-do lists for 2012, I thought I would first start with the key moments of truth I experienced in 2011. Upon reflection, I came up with three.

Content Remains King
Nothing earth shattering here but an important concept to keep in mind as we race to be the most creative, the most innovative and the one that really stands out. We can do all of that but if our content isn’t relevant and engaging, we will sell no widgets.

Coolest Title of the Year – CCEO
Chief Customer Experience Officer seems to be the new “C Suite” title as I met a few in 2011. I applaud the focus being put to customer experience and am most intrigued at where these CCEOs are coming from. The three I met in 2011 had all risen through different functions in a corporation: From IT, Customer Service/Operations and Marketing. And they all reported into different areas – none directly to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer). My own crystal ball forecasts a continuing focus on customer experience and I would like to think that more marketers will embrace the expanded role of ensuring engaging and relevant relationships with current and prospective customers.

Social Media is Still a Playground
While we’ve all likely heard of a few social media aha moments, overall, the playing field remains wide open and I don’t believe anyone has unlocked the true potential of this new media. What we did see in 2011 is many more companies entering the playground and interacting on Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook (among others). I’m hoping that in 2012 we will learn more about the infrastructure necessary and the need to actually target in this wide open space. A solid strategy with metrics and measurability will be key to sustaining spending support.

Dawn Marchand

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It’s an unfortunate truth for the planet that we humans like our comforts, conveniences and status symbols – all available at the local mall.

Whether it’s a product designed to get dinner to the table faster or look good in the driveway, every purchase inevitably has an impact on the earth’s natural resources. From the raw materials needed to make products to the energy used bringing them to retail shelves and showrooms, keeping ourselves fed, clothed, entertained and mobile comes with an environmental price tag.

Despite society’s growing environmental consciousness, our consumer culture persists. The relentless spending on the latest products is fueled not just by consumer demand but by an economy where corporate success is measured by quarterly returns and selling more products, not less.

Still, many brands are now openly wrestling with the issue of how to lessen the environmental impact of their offering while maintaining long-term profitability.

One such corporate leader is Unilever. At a recent online debate on sustainable living, CEO Paul Polman posed the question of whether companies can find ways of doing business “so that we actually improve the situation of the planet versus taking away from it.”

Other brands are joining the effort to find a more sustainable approach to answering consumer demand. Part 1 of this article focused on how brands are helping consumers make better choices for the planet by removing less desirable options from the retail shelf, called choice editing, and by enabling strangers to share the costs and benefits of goods and services, known as collaborative consumption.

Part 2 looks at how Patagonia is taking responsibility for its product long after its customer leaves the store, and how Starbucks is addressing one of the defining sustainability issues of its business: the disposable coffee cup.

Owning the lifecycle

The most common approach to retailing is to market an item, try to sell a lot and hope for minimal returns. Certainly the responsibility of the retailer is seen to end there. Not so for Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company that chooses to be accountable for its product through to the very end of its useful life.

First, Patagonia advocates that customers only buy what they need, recently making headlines with a provocative "Don't buy this jacket" advertisement. For those who do buy, Patagonia plays an ongoing role by repairing worn out clothing and facilitating re-sales through its Common Threads Initiative site on eBay, where consumers can buy and sell their used Patagonia clothing. For garments beyond repair, Patagonia will recycle it into new material so that old clothes can begin a new life.

Vertical greening

Not every business proposition involves a product that can easily be recycled, as Starbucks will attest. The purveyor of coffee may have an in-house recycling program for many of its locations, but four out of five of disposable cups leave the store with the customer. Unfortunately, not every jurisdiction supports the recycling of the used paper cups, leaving Starbucks in the uncomfortable position of contributing to landfills with its take-out sales.

Starbucks is tackling this challenge by bringing together the vertical industry players – upstream and downstream – to an annual Cup Summit. Here paper mills, manufacturers, recyclers, NGOs and even competitors like McDonalds, Tim Hortons and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters all collaborate on how to lessen the environmental impact of the disposable coffee cup. By taking a vertical approach to problem solving, Starbucks is opening a dialogue that will ultimately benefit the entire foodservice industry.

As the Patagonia and Starbucks examples show, brands play an essential role in establishing a more sustainable approach to capitalism. Whether rethinking the lifecycle of a product or addressing an issue shared by many, the strategies brands employ today have a significant impact on the society we’ll have tomorrow.

Stephanie Myers

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In a recent new business pitch, I was asked the dreaded question. The ONE question that every agency person has been up against. The crystal ball. The fortune teller. The winning numbers on a lottery ticket. THAT type of question. Here goes…I was asked:

What is the future of digital marketing?

Not exactly the easiest question to answer. But with a deadline looming, here were some of my thoughts:

1. Explosion of smartphone penetration and increasing importance of mobile integration

Can you spell ‘OBVIOUSLY’? Felt I would be remiss not to mention this. Smartphone penetration in North America is often reported as high as 40%. This number is expected to climb significantly over the next few years. Understanding how to motivate consumers via this device and encourage interaction and brand advocacy will become more important than ever before.

2. In-bound vs out-bound marketing

The marketing/communication landscape continues to change - daily. In this business, the only constant IS change. One thing we can be sure of though is the evolution from out-bound marketing (where brands pushed out their message) to the increasingly omnipresent in-bound marketing. In-bound marketing includes:

• Interactive and two-way communication
• Customers seeking out brands via a multitude of channels and experiences
• Need for marketers to provide value exchange

The shift has happened. And the pressure to provide value and utility will only increase.

Check out this related infographic which I used as a source.

3. Heightened sensitivity around consumer privacy

With the explosion of social networks and related marketing applications that delve into consumer settings and preferences, we as a society are more cautious than ever before about protecting our privacy.

While consumers are hungry for laws that protect their information and private data, marketers are concerned with over zealous regulations that threaten to derail marketing and communication freedom (CASL anyone?). Striving for balance will be a key issue for marketers across North America.

One only needs to look to recent claims and action taken against Facebook to understand the depth and complexity of the issue. Giving consumers clear access to control their privacy while allowing marketers to build permission based programs will become a bigger challenge over the next few years.

4. “Phygital” marketing

Let me be clear on one thing. I detest the word ‘phygital’. But this isn’t about me. So let’s move on…. Phygital Marketing is often described as “ideas that extend brand engagement with consumers through the interplay of experiences in both the physical and digital spaces – in the Phygital space.”.

With increasing budgets in the digital space (from media to production to innovation in technology), blending our physical world with the online environment is now the cost of entry. Consumers no longer decipher between online sites and physical store locations. The brand persona – and brand experience – is one. Agencies will need to understand how to connect and deliver engaging and useful interactions.

5. Monetizing social engagement

It is no surprise that brands are clamoring to get on social networks such as Facebook (if they haven’t already arrived). Those who joined the party some time ago are constantly struggling with how to engage their fanbase while monetizing their ROMI. Herein lies the challenge….how to determine return on investment and furthermore, how to leverage the social sphere into a revenue generating channel. As social inevitably continues to evolve, we predict that the value will be less about ‘status’ and size of network and more about crowd sourced solutions and daily interaction.

Social media in the B2C space is not only about helping brands connect with consumers but also influencing awareness, interest and desire. Some brands have been able to directly monetize their social media efforts and are well on their way to turning this dynamic channel into another example of ‘phygital’ well done.

Robin Whalen

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One of the top business books for 2011 is Richard Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why it Matters, an insightful book on business strategy and successful differentiation.

What I like most about this book is the different lens which it applies to the complex topic of strategy with clarity provided through what to avoid with business strategy development. With a topic such as strategy that is somewhat intangible, defining a parameter of what not do do can be very instructive.

This same book was reviewed earlier this year by Harvey Schachter of the Globe and Mail, with the following useful summary, should you not have time to read the book:

Prof. Rumelt offers these four hallmarks of bad strategy:

Fluff
Form of gibberish that masquerades as strategic concepts or arguments. The professed strategy uses what he calls “Sunday words” – words that are inflated and unnecessarily abstruse – and apparently esoteric concepts to create the illusion of high-level thinking.

Failure to face the challenge
The professed strategy fails to recognize or define the challenge facing the enterprise. “When you cannot define the challenge, you cannot evaluate a strategy or improve it,” Prof. Rumelt notes.

Mistaking goals for strategy
Many bad strategies are simply statements of desire rather than plans for overcoming obstacles.

Bad objectives
A strategic objective is a means to an end. Strategic objectives are “bad” when they fail to address critical issues or when they are impractical. The classic is a scrambled mess of objectives – everyone’s wishes and dreams gathered together into an unworkable plan. The word long-term, he notes, is usually added so that none of it has to be done today.

He summarizes that a good strategy has three crucial elements: a diagnosis, a guiding policy and coherent action. The guiding policy outlines the approach to dealing with the obstacles highlighted in the diagnosis. “It is like a signpost, marking the direction forward but not defining the details of the trip,” he says. Coherent actions are feasible, co-ordinated policies, resource commitments and actions designed to carry out the guiding policy. “A good strategy doesn’t just draw on existing strength; it creates strength through the coherence of its design. Most organizations of any size can’t do this. Rather, they pursue multiple objectives that are unconnected to one another or, worse, that conflict with one another,” he observes.

The UCLA interview video with Prof Rumelt provides more insight on the author's perspective on what makes for good strategy.

The right problem definition or business diagnosis is key to success. Like good medicine, having experts participate in the diagnosis and providing solutions can make all the difference.

Patricia McQuillan

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