february 2008

While many businesses hesitate to "adopt" social media, many business people are already heavy users of social media sites. Sometimes they don't even notice it. The ubiquitous success of LinkedIn is proof that even the most reluctant technology user can be enticed into the Web 2.0 space. Clearly LinkedIn have a great value proposition:

• Allows you to:
  • advertise/demonstrate your professional experience
  • manage your personal and professional network
  • expose this network (and activate its value)
  • identify and facilitate business opportunities in your wider network
• Provides employers with:
  • easy access to categorised and location based professional profiles
  • ready source of verifiable and referenceable professional histories

And while there are many other reasons to use LinkedIn, the simple fact that many business PEOPLE use it is a great proof point for social media within a business. And for B2B, it just means that you need to clearly articulate the value proposition -- how will it impact the business, which problem will it solve and what opportunities will it open up.

Take a look at this interview by Andy Sernovitz featuring David Armano and Matt Dickman -- if you listen to your customers, partners and employees then you might be suprised at what you find. But then think about your own LinkedIn profile. Think of its value to you. Then think bigger. Apply that thinking to your business -- and I will bet you see the opportunity that social media presents. It's about the FUTURE of your brand. (I'll have more on this topic really soon.)

This brilliant piece courtesy of Lauren. Actually I don't know if this is folly, lunacy or brilliance. It is even better that the link does not work.

Personal tragedy touches us all at some stage ... but nothing ever prepares us for the devastating impact that comes with the loss of a loved one. And the effects of this ripple out beyond the immediate family -- circles of friends, extended family members, work mates, colleagues and even casual acquaintances feel the sad touch of loss.

This week, Arun Rajagopal's mother passed away. Through his energy, enthusiasm and good will, Arun has become a loved member of the marketing blogging community -- and his loss reverberated around the world. Upon hearing, I paused. Drew a breath. After all, we all have hearts in common ... and mine had skipped a beat on Arun's behalf.

And while I can't be with Arun, my thoughts are certainly with him and his family at this time. We have also setup a site where, should you wish to, you can leave a message for Arun. It can be found here.

I don't normally post job/opportunities, but it just so happens that there are two rather interesting changes in my local network. First up, Katie Chatfield is relinquishing her iron grasp on digital strategy over at bellamyhayden, but will be resurfacing in a short while to bring enlightenment, insight and jam-packed business value to the clients of another leading agency. More details to come on that. BUT obviously, Katie's departure leaves a huge gap, I mean opportunity, for a digital strategist to take a walk in some large boots. Contact Katie if you are interested (or leave a comment here and I will pass your details on). Oh ... and for your overseas planners -- THIS is your chance to experience Sydney. Don't think about it for too long ;)

Secondly, at the end of May, the very clever Matt Moore, will be freed of his current contract. That means, if you are looking for a smart consultant who can work in complex environments to activate your knowledge or innovation programs, then you have a month or so to begin creating a program specifically to match his skills, interests and your company's objectives.

I wrote briefly on the one day conference on the Cluetrain Manifesto @10, and was hoping that, at some stage, the presentations would be shared. So I am pleased that this presentation by Doc Searls is now available on blip.tv. Hopefully more will come.

freddoslife

It was exciting. Truly exciting. The tall man with short, dark hair leaned down over my desk and put something small and dark on my desk. I looked closely. It was a grey book with black writing on the front. The book itself, sat neatly in a plastic sleeve -- clear on the front and a bright green on the back. A quick smile. A word of thanks. And he was off to the next child waiting expectantly.

Like all the other children, I eagerly picked up the package, slipped the book out and felt its surprising weight in my hot little hands. Inside the book it was a new world. There were no pictures. It was neat. Official. And there was my name, written in capitals in full. At the top of the page, a single number shone out. 4.00. It was a whole world in numbers. My life savings. Four dollars. And I was as proud as a button.

In my school, like in many others across the country, the Commonwealth Bank would sponsor children in primary school so that they could open a bank account. In many cases, this is the first "official" document in a child's name, and for me, it was a vivid moment of self identification. This program helped to establish a pattern of savings, to introduce us to the concept of banks and "interest" -- but it went further. It was part of our education ... it included a visit to the bank -- an excursion. There was an almost mystical induction into the world of finance and there was the weekly repetition of class deposits -- each Wednesday we would bring our savings into class in small brown envelopes. Magically our passbooks would return at the end of the day with an updated total. From a branding point of view it was an absolute coup -- the bank through the "Dollarmites" program has early and sponsored access to a new generation of customers. The ritualistic induction created a memory and provided an experience unlike any other, and our behaviours were moulded and reinforced each week. With such a powerful program in place, it confounds me that the Commonwealth Bank would do anything that would bring this program into disrepute. As reported by the Sydney Morning Herald, a young girl had opened a school account and was waiting for the arrival of her passbook. But instead of a crisp new book, she received a curt, impersonal letter:

Dear XXX… We acknowledge receipt of Katelyn's Youthsaver application dated 19 February 2008. The bank is not prepared to offer you this or any future banking facilities unless you receive written advice to the contrary.

Yours sincerely, John Steny.

This rejection was based on the child's mother's credit rating and previous dealings with the bank. And while the bank has since changed its mind and offered the ...

I have been watching the gang at Decisive Flow for almost as long as I have been writing this blog -- which is now well over two years. In start up world, that is about 10 years. And when you consider that Nat and Tim and the gang are based in New Zealand, far away from the spotlight and funding of Silicon Valley, then their successes are magnified several times over.

Why have Decisive Flow succeeded in a world of cut throat agencies, design shops and digitial sweatshops? I would like to say because they are nice folks ... because they are clever. Because they do good work. Well it is more than these things ... sure good work is important. Sure you need smart folk, good talent and it helps to be pleasant. But clearly, Decisive Flow deliver results. They identify gaps in the market and then seek to fill them. They create value for themselves, their clients and the consumers that they serve. They go beyond the mere creation of websites and applications, tapping into a global movement that aligns personal conviction with global need. It is the difference between talking and doing.

This project is a great example of how content, need, strategy and action come together in a Web 2.0 world. For every 100,000 visitors to THIS site between now and July 1st, one mason will be trained by LJ Urban to build houses in the land locked country of Burkina Faso (in Africa). That's right ... all you need to do is VISIT the site and encourage others to do so. This will make a REAL difference to the lives of a family. Learn more in this video ...

And while the first step is to visit, there are many more options for action:

1. Blog about this site. Let your readers know what is going on. Encourage them to visit.
2. Write emails to your friends. Bookmark the site. Create traffic.
3. Visit the blog and comment.
4. Go the whole hog -- buy a house and train a mason

Oh, and obviously, if you have a digital project that you need to activate. Give Tim and Nat a call. I am sure their simple and loveable approach will ring true for your business and your customers.

I remember my first typewriter. It was a huge, chunky Olivetti desk typewriter and I thought it was fantastic. It came through a friend of the family -- her office were replacing their typewriters with brand new, state of the art, electric typewriters. So this old beast was all mine.

I started typing my little hands off. I wrote out the words of songs that I liked. I wrote a few poems here and there, and stories ... I loved to write stories -- even then. I would sit down at the table with a thick felt mat shielding the table from the base of the typewriter, and I would begin to hammer our letters and words. First it was one finger at a time, but then, as I grew more practised, I began to type with two or even three fingers. My speed was increasing, but I would never get very fast. I needed to really pound the keys to make the letters appear nicely on the page, and the extra effort meant that speed was never to be easily attained.

Do Your Own Speedtest

When I started using computers, I found these typing skills were handy. I knew where the letters were and I could get up quite a bit of pace. I didn't even need to look at my fingers too much. But I did need to break through the speed barrier -- in teaching myself to type I had picked up plenty of bad habits (some of which I still have today) -- so I started doing some computer based typing training. And it started to pay off.

Because I didn't need to learn where all the letters were, I was able to pick up touch typing pretty quickly. Soon I didn't need to look down at all. Soon I was able to stare at another piece of paper and transcribe it effortlessly. With pretty good accuracy.

Nowadays, I find typing to be the only way for me to take notes. I certainly can no longer write very neatly -- and often find myself scouring my own notepads trying to make sense of the scrawl written there. But even with the fastest handwriting in the world, I could never write fast enough to keep up with my thoughts. This is where typing truly has been fanstastic. Now I can almost keep up with my ideas as they come streaming out of my mind. And while I get along at around 55 words per minute, I can push along a little faster when I am concentrating well.

But how fast are you? Is it important to be able to type quickly? I love it. Weirdly. (With thanks to Meg Tsiamis for pointing out the typing speed test.)

The last couple of years has seen a proliferation of agencies dedicated to creating "digital" work. But as you will know, not all agencies are created equal -- "digital" to one agency may mean "banner ads" while to another it could mean "mobile" or "microsite" or "web application". The degree of complexity (and integration) associated with a digital solution can vary widely, but the gaps between agencies are beginning to narrow. After all, it is no longer about the technology or the programming -- that is a commodity.

Increasingly agencies have to look to strategy to differentiate themselves and to deliver added value to their clients. And this field is scarcely populated. Or populated by strategists with only a few years' experience -- finding those with 5+ years working in digital is difficult. Those of us who have worked with digital strategy and planning for longer -- that come with a depth of knowledge and experience and are able to bring a business focus to their work are as rare as hen's teeth. But as agencies seek to build on their strategic role and move into a role of trusted business advisor, these folks will be indispensible.  As Wayne Arnold, CEO of full service agency Profero says in this great article:

We’re talking to global marketing directors who think about how to sell more product, rather than how they tell people their chocolate bar tastes good.

This means that our senior strategists need to be able to talk business. We need to be able to talk numbers, correlations and profit and loss. We need to demonstrate where and how our efforts will impact sales cycles and revenue projections. And we need to understand content. It needs to be all about numbers and stories. Digital strategy is no longer about campaigns, but about solving business problems. It is about adding value in a creative way.

Every medium has a frame. This can be physical like the hard edges of a TV screen or a computer monitor (or even the edges of a piece of paper), or it can be a "construct" -- a series of written and unwritten rules which we all follow in order to create meaning. Sometimes playing with or adjusting this frame can create surprise -- jolting us out of the passive stupor which surrounds our media consumption. I remember Moonlighting used direct to camera conversation as a way to "break the frame", but there are many other approaches and techniques that can be applied to film, video, TV, print, outdoor and even digital. Whichever media you are working in, there are rules to use and rules to abuse -- and plenty of creative space in-between.

But for me, the best creative work reaches THROUGH the frame in which it is created and connects us with a story. A powerful narrative has a force and impact which cannot be easily ignored. For digital work, this often involves interaction or an immersive approach to storytelling, while TV needs to capture our fleeting attention (ie stop us from walking away) and draw us into a story that DEMANDS to be told.

This TVC for the Victorian Traffic Accidents Commission is a great example. There are not single stories here, but a quiet cacophany of stories.

The plain, everyday footage and locales, the emptiness of the scenes conveys the tragic absence of life. The still-grieving (ever grieving) parents with photos is reminiscent of Chile's mothers of the disappeared, and the haunting music (Angie Hart's cover of The Cure's Pictures of You) all combine to remind us of the consequences of our actions as well as our need TO act.

Oh, and as Jayne points out, these people are not actors. They are the real people who have lost loved ones in accidents. Hope you have a box of tissues.

David Koopmans sent me this very funny compilation of IKEA ads. My favourite? I am sure you will be able to tell. Just watch it through.

Nick Sherman

Looking at new (or social) media, it is easy to see that there are some powerful forces driving change across our cultural, our social and even our political landscapes. These five impacts can be summarised, broadly as:

• Experts coming under pressure from new voices who are early adopters of new technology
• New organisations emerging to deal with the social, cultural and political changes
• There is a struggle to revise the social and legal norms -- especially in relation to intellectual property
• The concepts of identity and community are transformed
• New forms of language come into being
• Educators are pressured to prepare their students for the newly emerging world

Now while this seems obvious, pause for a moment. This list comes from Elizabeth Eisenstein on the invention of the printing press, and while it speaks to us in our current state, these changes have actually been underway for hundreds of years.

Why is this important? Because the printing press ... and for that matter, blogs, social networks, video and picture sharing tools, conversational and other "Web 2.0" sites are not just tools. They don't just FACILITATE communication and interaction. They MEDIATE it. The impact of this is profound.

If the way that we understand the world is, in turn, mediated by it, then those brands that do NOT engage with new media are placed at a significant disadvantage. This goes beyond the question of whether your company or brand "should have a website" or a "blog", but whether it is important for you to be part of the web of signification that creates the worlds that we live in.

There is a great shift and a great debate still just beginning (remember, for all the joy and speed that comes with the Internet, we still buy books in record numbers). Can you and your brand afford to ignore these changes? Or worse -- will you ignore the chance to engage with and SHAPE the future of media (and therefore our future lives)?

Given the ease with which you CAN engage, it's not a question of how, but how much. Even dipping your toe in the water is a start. Begin here.

Oh, and if you want to go deeper, check out Michael Wesch's presentation on Human Futures for Technology and Education. More power to you.

I am spending this week in the US to attend some planning and strategy workshops -- which means being caught in the no man's land of business travel. For me, travel (for business or pleasure) is both exciting and frightening -- no matter which country that I visit. It is something to do with the crossing of borders -- of leaving one's homeland and venturing into the world of another -- for whenever I leave my country, I am also leaving my "self". It makes me wonder who I will find/arrive as, at my destination.

And whenever I travel, I am always, always reminded of Helene Cixous' beautiful writing on borders:

When I cross a border, it's my border I'm crossing, though I don't know which one I'm crossing or which side I end up on. This is the charm of crossing the border. It is also what can constitute its distressing side: Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing, p 130.

The "distressing side" was never more clear to me than when I first visited Beijing, for while I had done some travel in Asia and visited the USA many times, it was my first visit to China which made me realise the true nature of borders -- and the fact that they are not porous, but resolute. And while they exist only in our imaginations, or as dotted lines on maps, they also signal completely different ways of looking at, engaging with, and being in the world. Borders are ideas made concrete.

And understanding this makes me a much more curious passenger. It makes me more observant of those passing through. It makes me wonder about the stories carried within and around my fellow travellers. And it makes me aware of the fine tension that we all share enroute -- caught in the out-of-placeness of airports.

So while I was sitting in the lounge waiting to board the plane, observing, I could also hear some gentle notes being picked out on an instrument. Over in the corner was a group of musicians, and one of them was plucking out a melody on a uke. To my surprise, I found it very relaxing. Soothing. And when I Twittered something about this, Brent Dixon responded with a link to Jake Shimabukuro's rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. And while I didn't see it until I arrived, it was worth the wait. Amazing.

Goes to show that some things cross borders seamlessly -- data, ideas, money. But for me? I hold my breath with every crossing.

Fast Company. It contained a wealth of great, innovation and business focused content and featured writers who were pushing both the concept of journalism and the practice of business. Over the years I drift away and come back to Fast Company -- perhaps this reflects moves in my career from a focus on corporate innovation across to B2B marketing and on to consumer marketing and life in an agency. But I always find a reason to come back to Fast Company ... there is always some value to be unlocked.

And today I find myself returning again ... with the announcement of this initiative. Now, anyone can become a member of Fast Company, contributing blog posts, questions and joining discussions. Apparently this will provide you with the chance to have your thoughts and writing sharing the same space as Fast Company writers like Ellen McGirt or Robert Safian or the new additions -- Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. Certainly sounds interesting ... and I will be keen to see how it actually works and whether this new extended and open network of the "Company of Friends" stimulates debate or whether it falls victim to social networking fatigue.

I, for one, am keen to see it succeed. I have already joined up -- and you can too. Hope to see you there!

servantofchaos

When I first heard about ooVoo, I must admit to being a little sceptical. I have been a user of Skype for many years and have grown used to it -- though I mostly use it for voice, I do occasionally use the video conferencing option. And ooVoo felt, to me, like it had come late to the party.

But over the last few days I have been trying it out. I have made VOIP calls to the US and had one-to-one and multi-user chats with friends and with colleagues. And this morning, spent a very enjoyable hour or so chatting with folks all around the world as part of MyOovooDay. Kris Hoet and Luc Debaisieux linked in from Belgium late in their evening, Drew McLellan, J Erik Potter, Scott Monty, Joseph Jaffe, Susan Reynolds and Connie Reece joined from the USA and Efrain Mendicuti from Mexico. It really was a global conference.

The ease with which ooVoo allows us to connect has really changed my mind about video conferencing. The immediacy of video chat easily trumps Seesmic in my mind -- and trounces the 140 character limitations of Twitter. While each of these have their place, ooVoo is feeling like a revolution to me.

I have eve noticed that I stopped using the IM feature of ooVoo and jumped straight to a video chat. It helps make me feel more connected. I also captured some video and will share it with you soon. Lots of fun!

The Banner Blog folks (via Katie Chatfield) bring today's folly -- but not from the brand messaging point of view. This is the response TO a piece of direct mail. How would you handle this one, dear reader?

Josh Bernoff):

1. Advertising as we know it will die.

2. Herding people into walled gardens and guessing about what makes them "social" will seem as absurd as it actually is. (Facebook is his example.)

3. We will realize that the most important producers are what we used to call consumers. (Yup.)

4. The value chain will be replaced by the value constellation. (Many connections.)

5. "What's your business model?" will no longer be asked of everything. (What's the business model for your kids?)

6. We will make money by maximizing "because effects". ("Because effects" are what happen when you make more money because of something than with it.) E.g. search and blogging.

8. We will be able to manage vendors at least as well as they manage us. (Agreements between companies and customers shouldn't be skewed in favor of the companies.) At Harvard Law they call this VRM -- vendor relationship management -- which is what Searls is working on (projectvrm.org).

10. We'll marry the live web to the value constellation. (The Live Web isn't just about stars. Relationships of anybody to anybody.)

As I suggested in this post, the Cluetrain still holds sway over our imaginations because its promises are yet to be achieved. This is not a criticism, but in fact, indicates its visionary nature. Ten years on, the culture, approach and technology of social media now provide us with the desire and mechanisms with which to begin the Cluetrain journey, but the distance to travel is vast and the dangers many. That is why I like Paul Downey's picture ... it shows a cosmology of technologies, ideas and companies. But it is we, the people, who traverse it in microscopic form.

More thoughts to come on this ... but what about you? Has the Cluetrain affected you? What is your journey story? Mine tomorrow.

Tomorrow is February 15 -- and that means you only have ONE DAY to organise yourself, make the commitment and pay for your tickets to Blogger Social. It will be a weekend full of socialising with some of the smartest bloggers this side of Saturn -- lasting from Friday, April 4 to Sunday, April 6 in NYC.

I have been holding my breath hoping that my buddies Luc Debaisieux (mindblob) and Cam Beck (chaos scenario) can make it. And now, with only a day to go, I am pleased to be able to breathe easy again. Not only can they make it, there will be a host of others, including:

so click here!

Remember, registration ends on Friday for this once-in-a-lifetime event. And keep in mind that if money and/or time is tight, you can sign up for either the Friday or Saturday events only. Just love to see you there!

Greg Verdino. It was pretty funky seeing the sort of live effects that can be used during the video chat ... and while it is a novelty, it also add a fun dimension to the technology.

One of the things that I like about ooVoo is the quality. We easily had six participants with video feeds, all speaking and contributing to the conversation. And the idea behind the launch is great -- meet some interesting folks, have a chat, use some cool technology and raise some money for a good cause -- the Frozen Pea Fund. So, so far, so good.

But then, the indefatigable Drew McLellan came up with another idea. What about if he and I hosted our own chat -- on the Age of Conversation? A couple of emails with the Crayon folks later, we were all systems go. So, now, your can sign up for one of 4x15 minute chats with Drew McLellan and myself. What are you waiting for? It doesn't get much better than this ;)

Oh, and if you want to know what time/date it is in your timezone -- try this. We are aiming for 4pm NYC time. That makes it Sunday, 8am in Sydney!

A year is a long time in politics! Just last year I wrote this post celebrating the 40th anniversary of a landmark in Australian history -- the recognition of the the citizenship rights of our indigenous people. Today I watched as the opening of Parliament under a new government placed the spotlight on indigenous culture -- with the traditional "welcome to country" performed in Canberra's Parliament House by local Aboriginals.

And tonight, the Australian people sit at the precipice of a change that I feared would never occur in my own lifetime ... our Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will tomorrow read an apology. He will say the word "sorry" three times. This single word, "sorry", has been a contentious political issue here in Australia for years. But in refusing its utterance, in banning its debate, it has hung like an albatross around our necks -- each individual silently bearing the weight of history and apathy in equal measure.

I hope tomorrow's speech reignites the spirit of reconciliation that I joined in over twenty years ago. It is time to move forward -- to confront with open eyes and open arms, the opportunities before us as a nation. There will be challenges, no doubt. Disagreements, many. But in addressing them, one by one, step by step, we will surely build a better place for us all to live in.

The full text of the speech is as follows:

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history. We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations -- this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future. We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation. For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians. A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past ...

lowereastside

Last week I gave a lecture to Dennis Price's MBA class on social media. It was great fun (for me), and I hope, beneficial for the students. One of the questions that kept coming up was "why do you blog" -- or more precisely, what is the value model that drives/informs my blogging.

My standard response is this -- blogging provides me with a disciplined approach to creativity, innovation and writing. This blog is a scrapbook of my ideas that I use to map and document my thinking, often returning to an idea months later. This makes my blog, for me at least, a veritable feast of content and concepts -- though sometimes the connections between ideas and actions, between strategies and activations are less than clear. Often this is because I am wanting to provoke potential methods of activation, not constrain them.

Often an idea will come upon me unexpectedly. In this situation, I normally login to the blog and type up a one line or one paragraph entry. If there is a link I will include it. Then I publish this as a draft. Later, when I have more time, I return to the draft to think it through and provide some context.

One such draft that I have been meaning to return to is this one. It is on the concept of digital natives, and in particular, on the podcast between two very clever social media thinkers and commentators -- Anna Farmery and Paull Young. And while I admit that there are problems with the terms "digital native" and "digital immigrant", they do provide a starting reference to form a conversation as you will notice in Show #136 of Anna's The Engaging Brand podcast.

I won't spoil the podcast for you, but there are some excellent points that Paull and Anna make, including:

• The identity of digital natives is in flux (as it is for all of us in our early 20s) -- and as such it is not yet aligned with our profession. This means there is a focus on the way that "work" and "life" co-mingle
• One of THE most important aspects of job choice is the opportunity to work with friends (or to make friends)
• This brings a special focus on the alignment of PERSONAL values and BUSINESS values. For businesses wanting to attract and retain digital natives, this touches concepts such as corporate social responsibility, flexible working conditions and accelerated responsibility
• Digital natives are impatient for outcomes. They are caught between wanting to overcome barriers to action (short term achievement) and achieving longer term beneficial change in the workplace and the world.

There are many other great points raised through the podcast, so it is well worth a listen (or you could simply subscribe to Anna's iTunes store). Paull mentioned that the digital natives are the first generation to be born with a Google Tattoo (he attributes this ...

While I have categorised this under "conferences", it is probably closer to a non-stop series of coffee mornings with alcohol and exotic locations thrown into the mix.

If you have NOT registered as yet and you WOULD like to come and hang out with 50+ marketing bloggers, then you only have a few days left to REGISTER. That's right, registrations close on February 15.

I keep thinking about the impact of Audience 2.0 on business -- on the way we work, who we are while working (ie the changes we make to our persona according to role etc) and the way that technology is transforming our lives and our workplaces. Increasingly, I am sensing that the old B2B models -- where we target our messaging and our communication efforts towards faceless, yet professional audiences -- are on the way out. And as we all begin to emerge from behind the "professional" masks that we wear, the brands that leapfrog their competitors will be those that speak to us knowing the mask but reaching for the complex person behind it.

This, piece for Fedex is a great example that showcases technology, power relationships, office politics, and the realities of business deadlines while also bringing in the personal, lifestyle and social orientation of our work/daily lives. Nice.

I keep thinking about the impact of Audience 2.0 on business -- on the way we work, who we are while working (ie the changes we make to our persona according to role etc) and the way that technology is transforming our lives and our workplaces. Increasingly, I am sensing that the old B2B models -- where we target our messaging and our communication efforts towards faceless, yet professional audiences -- are on the way out. And as we all begin to emerge from behind the "professional" masks that we wear, the brands that leapfrog their competitors will be those that speak to us knowing the mask but reaching for the complex person behind it.

This, piece for Fedex is a great example that showcases technology, power relationships, office politics, and the realities of business deadlines while also bringing in the personal, lifestyle and social orientation of our work/daily lives. Nice.