Digital Incontinence

Through circumstances, my family owns two 4th gen iPod Nanos. I like them. right size, easy to use, etc. This in contrast to the 5th gen iPod. I actually bought one for my wife when they came out and took it back almost immediately. First, it felt flimsy when you really used it. (The heft of the security device at the store made it feel more well built than it was.) Second, it was bigger than the previous one, but without any advantage, like a much larger screen. But mostly I returned it because the thing wouldn't charge off of any device (like the car radio link, or the iHome radio/speaker unit we leave it in most of the time) other than an actual charger cord. I was told by an AppleCare tech that the module which allowed it to charge off of any power source had been removed in the 5th gen to save space. "Save space!?!" I said, "it's larger!" Yes the tech admitted, embarrassing, but there you go. So I returned it and got the second 4th gen unit off of eBay.

Enough of that, back to the NEW nano…

I picked it up and was immediately struck with nothingness… As in, there were no instructions, nor markings ON the device, or clues on the small screen to indicate HOW one uses it. I rather like this.

Different than the Shuffle, which has a lot of nothingness about it too, but really does much less as well, the new Nano actually does MORE than ever, in a smaller package, but tells you less about it until you actually play with it. I like stuff that you are forced to play with because HOW it works becomes ingrained in your memory. This newest Nano is the anti-computer industry consumer electronic. After decades of boxes, sheets, booklets and cases festooned with tiny mouse-sized type telling you how to turn a device on or ingrained help files, here was something that truly can do a dozen things but you have to find out HOW on your own. Like playing with some modern-day chinese puzzle, one has to USE the device to learn how to use it. Apple isn't going to offer much help.

If this device were teleported back in time to the 70's, it would truly have been held up as evidence of alien cultures visiting our planet. There it sits, the size of 3 Wheat Thins piled up, and it plays music, receives radio, times your workouts, etc. and no matter which way you flip it over, it turns itself visually right-side up. Amazing, but still no indication of how to use it. 

Microsoft, Dell, Sony, Fujitsu… none of these companies could have produced this device. Their products and very culture can't stop talking at you long enough to allow something like this to be produced by them. (Well, Sony ALMOST can. But only their marketing dept. the group that produces their manuals could never do it! ;) ) It is an exercise in Zen. Now of course these companies don't cater to consumers who ENJOY products they have to figure out on their own. (MOST consumers LIKE having directions to fall back on because the dirty secret is that while humans would rather ignore the instructions and get to using the product, if they use it wrong, they want to blame it on something. Like hard to read instructions.) When you go INSIDE these companies however, they all hold up Apple and it's "culture" as some goal or way of working and communicating that they would like to emulate. Truth is, these companies can't be Apple because they can't be quiet enough. And that's OK because people like to be talked to, and Apple isn't really known for talking much. That's where the true disconnect between those "rabid Apple fans" and "everyone else" occurs.

Companies who AREN'T Apple need to stop wanting to be a little like Apple, or Totally like Apple or choose to use the best parts of Apple. It is a specific and organically generated culture that shows its culmination in products like the new Nano. Trying to "be like" Apple for a company such as Dell is like a fish trying to be like a bird. It doesn't make you a better fish and you'll surely be a lousy bird. OTOH, Flying Fish does taste good pan-friend in butter. I don't think that Dell wants to be pan-fried though.

After having played with the new 6th gen Nano, indeed, I want one. I'm one of the oddballs who likes to figure out their device. MOST people aren't necessarily inclined, so please, Companies who AREN'T Apple, don't try to be them unless you REALLY mean it. Saying nothing is something and Its difficult work to be that quiet.

Great and thought provoking stuff Jeff, but I don't see it as the net becoming less social. I see that the backbone, or as they say in the video, the central nervous system is becoming more robust. 

This feeds right into my assertion that we are witnessing a reboot of humanity through our technology. Despite being a digital form, because we are nature and organic, what we create is nature and organic, so the net grows in an organic fashion. Ultimately, our social interactions will be and really ARE the ego, the consciousness and waking state of the organism of this digital nervous system of the planet Earth and humans as a whole entity.

The thief was apprehended less than nine minutes later.

Now anywhere you go, as long as your device has power, it can be found in realtime. I've been waiting for this day to come from the first time I heard about LoJack... We have tracking for the car, for a pet, and now for electronics. Although people haven't approved tracking implants yet, it is an eventuality that is coming faster and faster. If we combine the integrated or implanted chip technology with the software tracker through GPS technology, it will become simple and hopefully cheap to track almost anything we can put the chip into. Clothes, jewelry, purses...Heck, you lost your keys again? Pull up your tracker app on your smart-handheld, choose "keys" off of a list and track them down in realtime using a little sensing map. Imagining the possibilities is endless.

Fear drives the marketing of this kind of technology. Fear that YOU will be the center of anything from a lapse of reason, to victim of a crime. Lost child at the mall? Lost car at the airport? Lost wallet in your own home? You could find it within minutes. Add a 911 auto-call function, and at the touch of a soft-button you'd be able to beam the current whereabouts of your missing child to the police within seconds and get the patrols out to stop a heinous crime in action.

The personal awareness of things around you fascinates me too. Every time I look at the little "tracking satellites" screen on a GPS device, where you are at the center of the screen and the satellites are shown around you on a compass rose, I imagine:"What if those were items I wanted to know the whereabouts of?" It would be possible to tag and color code different types of items and stand anywhere in your home, or office and walk straight to any of those items with the added awareness of all of them.

If the tracking chips were attached to little pins, you could go to a theme park, museum or strange city on vacation and with a downloadable upgrade map, pin everyone and keep track of your party no matter when or where you separate. Of course, this could be used to keep watch on members of your family or even others who might not know you added a tracking pin to their personal affects, so the invitation for abuse is right there, always. Invasion of privacy issues with this sort of device and software is enormous. Not only could YOU track an item/person, so could a clever criminal who wants to watch where something went so they could snatch it when its more opportune.

So like anything, there is a double edged sword attached to its use. The ethical issues of "Will you use it for good or bad?" rears its head immediately. It's a debate that's going to rage for decades, even as the ability to use it will spread and become less expensive and more pervasive. No doubt about it though... its coming.

This is the crack that has opened in the doorway to Augmented Reality... The hot topic for the coming years as Social Media, Location Based Systems and Smart Devices all converge. Are you ready to know where your stuff is? Are you ready for the HyperAwareness?

You see, I believe we’re still a couple of years away from the public seeing “talking to their favorite brand” as an everyday activity. The average consumer is still wary of talking straight to a company's "brand". They probably don't believe they can actually DO it, or that anyone would care! The irony is that NOW is the greatest time of least resistance as far as being heard goes. Once the infrastructure is built, and the Gen Y consumer becomes accustomed to speaking directly to a company, the chatter will become loud and an individual voice will get lost in the consensus.

From the corporate side, It is incumbent on the marketing AND advertising departments of any well established brand to prepare for the eventual onslaught of opinion and interaction and have a SM group assembled, a plan in place and a voice established to speak to the buying public before the shift occurs. I see this being done using traditional media channels setting the tone of the brand voice, (how the brand speaks about itself and to the public) driving to the online channel and then the online channel delivering on the promise of direct one to one response. The more effective a brand is at this, the more credible they will be at sending the community back to the traditional media for the “offers” to buy another product and go though the cycle again.

Now I haven't followed up on this, but for all it's viral-ness The Old Spice campaign seems a good example where an online phenomenon can move the needle and get people talking-- But as engaging as it was, it still appeared rather one sided with all of its production value minimums and the way it didn’t really drive back to say, getting a (pre-planned) coupon through a traditional channel, like the newspaper circular... If the Old Spice guy could have said, “Alyssa, I liked your comment and as a way to say thank you, I’m going to place a special coupon good for a blah blah, in xxx publication, just for you. If you or anyone else finds it, you will get a blah, blah…” Now of course the “custom” coupon would be mass produced and made available all over in magazines and newspapers. People would know that it wasn’t really a “private” offer, and see how it was a planned thing, but each that SAW the video online, would FEEL the thrill of finding coupon, (Like Charlie with his Golden Ticket) if for even a second, and then have that replaced with the feeling they are “in” on something special. There is then a higher probability they will go use it for another Old Spice product. This way, the payoff would be an invitation to spend more, but the reward will be satisfaction for having a sharp eye and a sense of interactive participation, completed when they redeem the coupon. On the products it could then have driven back to talk to the Old Spice guy online…

Until more experimentation with this sort of 360 marketing where the consumer is pointed to the next step all along the way, SM is not going to mature past the Twitter 140 world of mini-mentions. Although WE online savvy marketeers and creators are using Twitter as a conversation tool right now, it is another example of a “Can and String” type interaction and clunky to use at best. Facebook “like me” pages aren’t much better at true one to many, many to one interaction and drive to action, but do try. Still there’s Facebook as the middleman in the way of the client/customer interaction using that pipeline…

The average citizen doesn’t understand SM the way they do, say, a call center. Until a scalable variation of SM engagement with that agreed on voice present, fully backed and driven-to by traditional media outlets arises, the average buyer isn’t going to go online to discuss what they do and don’t like about a product with their peers beyond the confines of Facebook. (But they'll talk to Grandpa Joe all day about it!) And the way the private Facebook wall conversations go, the brand itself doesn’t get a seat at the table in those discussions...

SO I'm wondering if a whole series of online branded clothes will be available for Barbie Video Girl... Twitter skirts, YouTube jackets, MySpace Leggings... oh, wait, maybe it should be DeviantArt leggings with MySpace leather rock n' roll boots! Or should that be the other way around? I don't know, I just know that this is a whole new push at getting little girls online where their snotty nosed MMORPG gamer brothers have been kicking them off of.

I'm trying to imagine what you'd shoot with your Barbie Video Girl doll? Is there going to be a new category on YouTube for Barbie POV tea parties? Will we be able to see Barbie's 120,347 dates with Ken from her view? Are there suddenly going to be mashups of Barbie and GI Joe TV theme songs with video showing Barbie living it large with her tough guy posse in her dream house jacuzzi? Will we get to see what it looks like to be scorched by a backyard magnifying deathray from on the table? (That would be made by the aforementioned brothers...) The possibilities are endless!

But what of the Geolocation powered scavenger hunt you need to go through to get one of these beauties? It SOUNDS fun running all over town following your iPhone or Droid as you track the elusive clues to reach Barbie first, but as I asked last post, what will the conversion be on scavengers? What percentage of market is this going to get them? Is Mattel hoping that a whole new generation of little girls will grab their parents GPS enabled, Foursquare supercharged smartphones and run the rally, coming out as Barbie junkies? Will they show their sooper-video enabled Barbie doll to their friends and convert legions of young minds to equate the real world of playing with dolls to going online and sharing their own movies and Barbie shows? Will these Barbie loving little girls all lobby their parents to give them smartphones with Foursquare on them for their birthdays? Are Twitter and Foursquare going to be plagued with posts of  "Kelly became Mayor of Bailey's House" and "Haylee unlocked the Crunked badge" for visiting her friend's backyards?

The article finishes with "Both the doll and the Foursquare scavenger hunt has showed how Mattel is tuned into the digital and social media world of today." That sounds just like the tag line to a Barbie advertisement. <little girl:> "I'm tuned into the digital and social media world of Today! I'm lovin' my Barbie!" Is that all it takes? Buy a doll and you're ONLINE! Kids DO adopt new tools easily and quickly... maybe the next iPhone will be an iBarbie! "She's a doll! She's a smartphone! She has geolocation! Facebook in the front, Tweet-her in the rear! Nice Appsets! Take your iBarbie everywhere and unlock discounts for new clothing by checking in at the Mall! Checking in at School! Checking in at Disneyland!" ...THEN the Barbie your kid carries everywhere will be broadcasting her whereabouts back to Mom. THAT'S a useful form of geolocation! "My little girl is tuned into the digital and social media world of Today! I'm lovin' her Barbie!"

 Geolocation and Location Based Services have a long way to go because no-one knows where they are going. (double entendre intended) These tie-ins are GREAT engagement tests and evolution, and I welcome them, but they are also grasping at marketing straws. In my opinion, the ultimate uses of Location Based Services will need to be more integrated with the experiences and used matter of factly rather than be an intentional race for the goods.

Now about where Barbie Video Girl has her camera lens... Then again, nevermind. I don't want to know.

I have a lot of friends online who swear on their Foursquare Badges and Gowalla swag that it is useful and engaging, but I'm still a little skeptical. I take the "Watson, come here. I need you." view of it. Location based marketing is in its infancy and no-one knows how to use it, let alone effectively, yet. Today, it is like a giant game of scavenger hunt. People running around having to check in, getting flags or clues, earning points and badges that lead to coupons. And people will try to game that system too, becoming "Mayor" of a given shop just by stopping in the closest parking spot and checking in every day- hoping it leads to discounts later.

Aaron Strout pointed me to the Nets/Gowalla promotion where they had clues to tickets all over NY that you could redeem and see a free game with cool swag and in venue chat added in. But even if you find the tickets to the local ball game, and attend, will you become a fan of that team? Will you discover a new pastime to spend wads of dough on, or will you chalk it up to another fun adventure with your snazzy 4G phone? I guess that's still a difficult metric to track.

To quote the 80s band Softcell, It's a Mug's Game. I DO however believe it WILL be part and parcel of the technologically expanded awareness coming soon to a future near you. As the internet evolves into something increasingly user friendly, social, and just worth engaging with, so will geolocation find its irreplaceable position within the structure of our lives. Our future selves will not be able to remember how we survived and functioned without the ever present ability to navigate the macro and micro of the world. Every THING and every person will have the ability to provide almost second nature information about its position on the globe to within a tiny margin. How valuable this will be will be based on the context. Just like a slider, or a volume knob, the location based tools will make themselves apparent on the fly as and when needed.

Standing on the corner of a strange city while at a convention? The wave of a hand will provide the location, directions, and a coupon to your favorite chain of coffee shops, and offer local alternatives based on your personal predilections. Your hand held device will buzz or shake the directions as you hunt down your prey of a croissant, or a dress and shoes for this evening's party or a convenience store to get your favorite smokes, (providing they aren't yet outlawed). Want to know where your colleagues rooms are at the JW Marriott? With their permission, you can be guided right to their doorstep, even AFTER they got moved to a suite for the inconvenience of a broken toilet. Need directions to your daughter's friend's birthday party? No matter how obscure the location, you will be directed right to the best parking spot at the MyGym, but not until after you stopped at the Toyz iz Us on the way, and gotten what was on the little princess' gift list, with a built in discount coupon, earning you both loyalty points from the store and the navigation service for your next purchase. Living in a new town and you need to find the Post Office? Instant and easy directions will take you there and even weigh your package and report you're bringing it ahead of time. (You'll probably STILL have to wait in line once there though!) Yes its going to be a big shiny world of finding, being found and finding out about anything, anywhere thanks to geolocation.

I love it for all that it is going to be able to do, but despite my design directing a few, I'm not much of a gamer. Nor am I much interested in being in on the string and cans version of a new communications method. I already live life pretty far out on the edge of the tech wave, but when it comes to using AnyThing v1.0, I'm not really game.

I know there are loads of smart people out there who know more about this than I, and I AM game to learn from you. Chat me up about it sometime, and maybe we can all help location based marketing do more than move the needle, we can get it to move into the future and move products!

You see, way back in the 1960's, NASA devised a method for talking to the crews in the capsules they sent into space. Now everyone who has seen Apollo 13 knows that the guy in the white vest is the Big Kahuna of Mission Control, The one EVERYONE listens to and who makes the FINAL decisions, but what about the guy he gives directions to for the Astronauts? Who the heck is THAT guy? And while I'm talking about him, WHAT does THAT guy have to do with Branding & Social Marketing? I'll show you....

"THAT guy" is in the CapCom seat. He is the ONLY person who COMmunicates with the CAPsule. Now they could pick anyone in the program with a clear speaking voice and knowledge of the mission to be the CapCom, but they don't. At NASA "Failure is NOT an option", so they don't pick just anyone for a VERY specific and SIMPLE reason. Everyone in Mission Control has at one time or another a message they need to give to the Astronauts. There are probably more than 30 people in that room at any one time and as you can guess, it would be a mess to have them all trying to talk to the capsule crew at one time... One muddled instruction and bye, bye Space Capsule/Shuttle, bye, bye crew. All those voices, all those messages to decipher... So ALL of those messages go THROUGH the CapCom. But that's not the ONLY reason for the CapCom. There is also the added issue of priority! The CapCom ALSO decides (on the fly) WHAT is an important enough message to send through, What order those messages need to be conveyed and the urgency of information. Basically the CapCom is an information traffic cop! (Or a router to you IT peeps).

OK, great! Now we know WHY there is a CapCom, but who IS this super-duper, wonder person? What is it that qualifies that guy to BE THAT guy? Well, who else would know what an Astronaut needs to hear, and in what order than another Astronaut? Yes, that's right.. the CapCom is ALWAYS an Astronaut, who is trained right along side the people up in space, on EVERY aspect and critical issue of that mission and component of the capsule. That CapCom person knows the same things as the Astronauts, so he is the best qualified on the right and wrong messages to be sending to the crew.

This of course, got me to thinking. (A dangerous pastime, I know...) How could this be applied to Branding and Social Media? Here's where the community engagement comes in if you're not already ahead of me:

Currently, the majority of companies don't take their Social Media engagement much more seriously than a free Facebook page, or a Twitter account with a young intern or new hire with no deep experience of that company's brand (beyond collecting a paycheck), monitoring the stream. This "young person" does their best to tweet or manage the company's pages, but when a new product is coming on line, or a comment of criticism comes up from a community member, things get hot, sticky and worst of all, off brand. The company looks especially bad if this community manager annoys the client. At this point, the SM engagement is working AGAINST the company... Not what the use and intention of branded SM is at all!

More savvy companies run their Social Media department through the Advertising Department, looking for straight trackable ROI. That's not a bad thing, but after a short time, the community tires of the same old messages and engagement they get from TV, Radio and coupons in the Sunday circular. Although the brand is better represented, it starts to become a one way, "Come buy more stuff" kind of message and not one of community and trust.

If the Marketing Department is in charge of SM, there's a better chance the message will remain on task and on point, but again, the least experienced staff members (who are probably young and use SM as a matter of course in their lives) often get assigned the task. These companies risk getting results that remain the same. Driving the buy and not the engage.

To MY way of thinking (which IS biased) nobody understands a brand's message, its use and position in the market better than a Branding Manager. And HERE is where the NASA CapCom connection comes in. If the typical brand consumer is the equivalent to a member of the crew in space... all alone out there and with a knowledge of what they want, and a desire to speak to the voice of a brand, then they should be speaking to someone who knows that brand inside out, its demographics and various uses (both official and not so much). A Branding Manager is just such a staff member. The Branding Manager is in the position of putting themselves into the mind of their customer, understanding their wants, needs and how they would like to be spoken to. They are the "consumer within Mission Control" for that brand. They also are often in the Marketing Dept. but interface with Advertising, so they have the added advantage of crossing lines.

But wait! You say... There are typically only one to a few Branding Managers. True, but we are talking about a sector of the market engagement that is FAST growing as the Internet evolves into amongst other things, the digital equivalent of the village marketplace. I feel that the company that hires a team of smart, savvy Branding Managers and has them become the public voice online of the brand, there will be a high probability of a sticky customer engagement and a growing community who get an exact and consistent experience of the brand. NASA started with only one Astronaut in a capsule and now we have whole crews in space at a time. If a brand wants to influence their customer community, they have to gain trust. Trust can be earned by a reliable voice offering inclusiveness into the thinking of the brand. Something that the Brand Manager is uniquely suited to.

Building the SM Engagement around a TEAM of real Brand Managers who control the whole outgoing and incoming stream of messages could have the effect of keeping the customer fully engaged with a consistent experience, where "Failure is NOT an option."