I highly recommend you join director Gary Hustwit for a special one-night screening and discussion, presented in conjunction with AIGA Los Angeles and IDSA Los Angeles. Read more about it here.

Thursday, July 9, 7:30pm
Los Angeles CA, USA
Laemmle’s Royal Theatre
Tickets on sale now. These are going to go quickly…

Recessions help bring people back to reality: the realities of what qualifies as important news (maybe not to everyone), what political issues need to be dealt with and discerning what is really worth buying (and what one can forgo). This puts brands that don’t offer necessity or an emotional attachment in a predicament. They can scramble to change their messaging temporarily for the downturn, take a hit under the presumption that their brand’s desirability before the downturn will return as the economy strengthens, or they can attempt to modify the brand message to appeal to a wider audience. Because recessions bring marketers back to reality, marketers are forced to rethink the basics: “Who is my audience?” and “Why would they buy this product?”

My guess is that even the brands that are doing well in today’s market have rethought these basic questions. Bringing your marketing back to this level, even by necessity, should be considered a natural part of every brand’s life. As marketers “rediscover” their products or services, they may also identify new product opportunities, more viable markets, more relevant messaging, etc. that they might not have discovered otherwise.

You can’t go too far without reading an article about how digital is
reshaping the agency landscape. Older, ‘traditional’ models, where the
agency held great control of the client and its brand experience, are now
giving way to the rise of brands shaped by the customers themselves. And
there is no better medium to foster this shift than digital, whose myriad of
channels allow for everything from low-cost focus group testing to real-time
metrics that, with the right analysis, allow campaigns to be modified and
re-targeted instantaneously.

The largest advertising conglomerates in the world are now doing an average
of 15-28% of their revenues through digital – and the digital outlook for
2010 is another year of double digit growth (despite a projected decline in
global ad spending for the third straight year). I believe the rise in
digital across global agencies is for two main reasons:

- It is where the consumers are
- It drives IED

The first reason is straightforward. The second represents a concept that
every agency is aspiring to own for their clients:

Idea + Execution + Distribution

Agencies, regardless of where and how they began, will need to provide all
three of these pieces to their clients in order to represent a distinct
value proposition moving forward. Disruptive ideas need to be executed
flawlessly across a campaign, then distributed at the right times to the
right audiences. Smaller, execution-driven digital shops are fighting to
gain credibility at the Idea level, and large ad agencies are stubbing their
toes trying to figure out cost-effective Execution. Ad networks handle
Distribution, but little else. And through all of this, the client still
wants just one agency.

Digital connects the IED concept because the ideation, development and
distribution are all in the same medium. For this reason, we’re now seeing
digital shops being awarded large AOR contracts. If most of the campaign’s
execution and distribution are now digital…shouldn’t the idea begin there
too?

Soon, there will be no distinction between ‘digital’ and ‘traditional’, etc.
How agencies began will be of less interest – it is only how they perform
across the IED concept that will ultimately matter.

Microsoft is planning to extend the use of Word to render HTML in emails in Outlook 2010.

Microsoft Word has very little support for CSS. As a result, HTML emails have to be coded completely different from web pages, using non-standards compliant and deprecated practices such as tables for layout, table cell backgrounds, and the use of font tags. This is often a time consuming process with unreliable results.

Outlook 2010 is still in beta. If there is enough pressure from the community, perhaps this can be prevented. Please visit http://www.fixoutlook.org to participate.

I work in the Strategy practice at LEVEL Studios which focuses on globalization, organizational design and product management. Lesser known is that I moonlight as an adjunct faculty member at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business. I find it tremendously inspiring to bring my corporate skills to students in academia and in turn bring my experience in academia back to Corporate America. The challenges I face teaching aren’t so different from the challenges my clients face when establishing a good online strategy. First impressions are key: just like students size you up in the first 5 minutes of class, website visitors size up the value of a site in seconds. Here are two other classroom challenges I’ve faced that translate well into tactics I use for helping my clients achieve their online goals.

There are many of them and only one of you, yet a personal connection counts.

I have outgoing students, busy athletes, international students and just about every other type of student imaginable. I have to speak to the group, but I also have to connect with each of them individually at the same time. First, I have found that students value honesty above all. They don’t want marketing spin, and they can see right through it. Second, I use a combination of mediums in my classroom, including lectures, guest speakers and videos, to keep everyone interested in a way that works for them personally. Third, I have to meet their expectations or deal with failure in multiples. For instance, if I communicate the requirements of an assignment poorly, I have to deal with 30 mistakes, not just one. Most important, these factors impact my reputation, which can spread online and affect interest and enrollment in future classes I teach.

Change isn’t easy, but consistency is just as tough.

Although I vigorously prepare my lecture notes, what I end up saying often varies from plan. This is due, in part, to the unexpected questions from students during lectures (a great thing because this is how true learning happens). To counter this diversion from the key points I planned to discuss, I make sure that these points are reinforced through my syllabus, weekly emails and homework. Another challenge I face is how to continually innovate while still delivering a consistent message to my audience. I find that students want to learn about virtually any topic I raise in class; but if I ask them in advance, I don’t always get an enthusiastic response. These are times when I simply need the confidence to go for it when I think I’ve come up with a new way of teaching a topic. Lastly, I need to know if I’m achieving my long-term goals. Ultimately, I want students engaged at a level that ensures they walk away with key lessons that will stick for years to come. Midway through the class, I survey students to understand their concerns, and I can make any corrections necessary. I also stay in touch with a handful of students from each class through LinkedIn, often inviting them back to my class years later as guest speakers.

How does this relate to a good online strategy? Sometimes all you need is a good analogy to help you see your projects and problems from a new perspective.