Midnight Art Series

My friend Brian came up with the idea for the Midnight Art Series about a month ago. I’m not entirely sure what brought it on, but he asked me if I’d be a part of it. Essentially ten people get together at midnight on a Friday night (last evening) and are given a prompt and color palette. From there they need to create ten pieces which will be exhibited and then distributed, one each, to the other participants.

For the inaugural go of this the prompt is:

Grace Under Fire

And the color palette is:

Purple and Silver

I thought it might be fun to update this during the day with photos and thoughts I have. You can follow all the action at Flickr.

And if anyone has any brilliant thoughts, feel free to leave them in the comments. I’ve got an idea at the moment, but I’m by no means stuck to it.

Update (3:25pm): So I think I have a basic idea at this point. I have taken a bunch of small print from cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, etc. and laid it out on a single page. I have purple paper to print on and silver paper to lay it on top of. I am going to try and cut grace right into it.

Update (4:00pm): One down, nine to go . . .

Update (7:18pm): One more to go . . . . I’m quite tired of cutting things. Sorry for the crappy quality, took it on my BlackBerry.

Update (7:41): All done. Finally. Ten down.

Update (4/1/07): All done and have had about a day to reflect. Beyond being quite exhausted at this point it was a fabulous experience and idea. I found myself doing something so far from my regular routine that it was freeing. Seeing all the work yesterday evening was absolutely amazing. Ten people took the same prompt and went in incredibly different directions: Bicycles, eggs, icebergs, typography, photography, illustration . . . It was amazing. As soon as we get a site up with the scans I will make sure to post a link.

Thanks for following along, hope you enjoyed.

March 31, 2007

A Mixed Bag

It’s time again for me. The one where write down a whole bunch of random things I’ve been talking/thinking about and let you choose whether there’s a reason to write more.

Thoughtless Tools

Great tools make you want to use them. A site like Flickr is such a pleasure to interact with that I want to post my pictures there. Unfortunately, as far as business tools go, there aren’t a whole lot that people don’t despise (hence 37signals’ success). What I’ve been wondering lately is whether it’s possible to build tools that people use without even knowing it? That’s not to say you’re spying on them, but rather that you’ve created a tool with a barrier to entry of zero. Not quite sure how to make this happen, though I imagine something having to do with attention data would be a good start . . .

Long Tables

One of the coolest things about Naked is the long table we all sit at. While at first a bit intimidating and at times somewhat loud, the pros far outweigh the cons. Being able to overhear conversations and interject where appropriate is where a lot of good ideas come from. Gladwell talked about this kind of stuff in his great piece on office design (which I think I’ve sent to 10 people in the last week). Over the weekend I had a long conversation about how to maintain a small company feel when a company’s not so small anymore. Clearly the space plays a big roll, but ultimately the question to me is how you foster a more serendipitous environment.

likemind as API

Working on a much longer piece on this, but I can’t help but think of likemind as an API for much larger things the members of the community will accomplish in the near future.

There must be more stuff I’m thinking about that I just can’t pull out of my brain right now. So how about all of you? What are you thinking about? What kind of half-baked ideas do you have?

Oh, and would anyone have an interest in writing something for the site? I am thinking about doing one day a week where I post something someone else wrote. Is this appealing?

March 26, 2007

No More Campaigns

I’ve had Google on the mind quite a bit lately. I think I’ve mentioned it in the past, but a few months ago I was lucky enough to hear them speak at the 360i conference. The person who presented (whose name I can’t remember and don’t have written down . . . David?) spoke of the end of campaigns. From Google’s perspective, campaigns are silly: You should have all your assets running all the time.

In another era, you ran a campaign around a specific time (say Christmas), but in Google’s world, where you only pay for clicks (aka leads), it’s silly to think that way. A lead in March is worth the same as a lead in December, so why aren’t you running your ads all year long?

What’s more, since you’re not paying for impressions, there’s no reason not to embrace an endless number of messages (minus cost of producing them, of course). Whereas when you’re running a television commercial you need to chose the one message that will resonate best with your one target, on Google you can use all those other messages that hit the cutting room floor.

Selling a TV that has great picture? That’s probably what the commercial is going to say. But on Google you can talk about the HDMI inputs, the SD card slot and the fact that the box is recyclable. If there’s one person who is interested in the recyclable bit and they happen to search for it, why not be prepared for them? You’re only going to pay if they click anyway. It’s yet another long tail story.

Speaking of the long tail, Mohammed Iqbal wrote a very interesting piece that hit on some of these points called The Elongating Tail of Brand Communication. In discussing the way the marketing industry has been ruled by the same rules as retail, Iqbal writes:

In creating and peddling our wares we [marketers] also use the very same devices and tricks that the media and entertainment industry have perfected in the last century.

We use pre-filtering as mechanism to predict and deice what will have mass appeal. We choose between alternatives — only allowing ‘one’ brand idea at a time to make it [to] the expensive ‘shelf space’. We pull off air any ‘brand idea’ that doesn’t connect with all of our identified consumers — even if it has its own small niche of buyers.

Whether we realize it or not, we have been dancing forever to the tunes of shelf-space scarcity and distribution bottlenecks. While all the while believing self-righteously that the single-minded brand proposition is the only right way to build a brand in any situation. Even in current times of abundance — abundant shelf space (for brand ideas), abundant distribution (in media channels and bandwidth) and abundant choice (of brand propositions tailor-made for each of your niche audiences.)

When you play this out, you start to get a world where a singular brand proposition is no longer the best approach. This is part of what Faris and Jason we’re talking about when they wrote of transmedia planning. As I see it, because people now have the ability to search out their own media there is more room for multiple messages and ideas.

The website of the future may not be a flash-filled affair that broadcasts the brands position to its customers, but might instead be a search box with mountains of content sitting behind it that allows people to find the thing within the brand that resonates most with them. It’s idiocentricity at its finest.

Google’s new pay-per-action product takes this a step further. Pay-per-click made it easier to spend your money more efficiently by allowing you to target people during specific times within the purchase cycle, but there were still inefficiencies. You were still paying for luke-warm leads. Pay-per-action (PPA) changes that, in a world where you only pay when someone purchases something or fills out a form, what excuse do you have for not constantly running all your assets?

Now of course there are some major holes in this thinking around how it integrates with the rest of the media world, but there’s no denying that it’s going to change the way people think about a lot of things.

Would love to hear thoughts on how to take this farther, holes in the thinking, how it integrates with other media or why it’s just plain silly.

March 22, 2007

This Friday: Laier!

I’m not quite sure why, but I decided that there was a serious need for a drink time this Friday. With that in mind, Adrian Lai and I (hence Lai-er) will be hosting a little post-work shindig this Friday, March 23rd.

(Logo created in 15 minutes this evening . . . please forgive me Adrian . . . )

Anyhow, the details are as follow:

Where: Sweet & Vicious, 5 Spring Street (btwn Elizabeth and Bowery) (GOOGLE MAPS)

When: 6:30pm (though I may get there a bit earlier)

Why: It’s Friday.

I think that’s it. Hope to see lots of you there. Also, if this is something interesting to you, please drop me an email or leave a comment and I’ll email you in the future when I plan things like this . . . I want to figure out if there’s any demand.

For all of you wondering when I will actually start writing again: It’s soon, I promise.

March 21, 2007

Carbon Consideration

I was recently having a conversation with my friend Tamara about all things green. Tamara currently works with OZOcar, a private car service with a fleet of Prius’ instead of gas guzzling Lincoln Town Cars.

I’m an outsider to the green world. I’ve heard conversations and seen movies, but as an individual I still have very little understanding of what kind of impacts I can personally have on the environment. Her response has stuck in my mind since: “Asking the question is one of the biggest steps you can take.”

The very fact that people are considering their impact on the environment at all is a huge step in the right direction. You may not be trading carbon yet, but at least you understand that airplanes are a huge polluter and you might think twice about ordering that Australian shiraz instead of something from California (2.59 tons of carbon vs. .57 tons according to Climate Care).

It’s not hard to see how this kind of questioning can lead to action. In England a few major brands are going to start putting a carbon footprint label on some of their most popular products. The hope for the companies is one part environment and two parts (presumably) business. They hope that consumers will look at the labels and choose one similar product over another based on the carbon footprint: Not a bad idea in a CPG market where so many products look, taste and feel the same.

What’s more, there is quite a bit of innovation that can happen when you evaluate processes based on a different set of criteria. While calculating the carbon footprint of Walkers potato crisps, areas of inefficiency were identified that both added to the carbon emission and the cost to the company. “By changing the way potatoes are traded, the trust found that the Walkers supply chain could save up to 9,200 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and £1.2m [$2.3 million] a year. It recommended farmers be rewarded for producing potatoes with low water content.” Not too shabby.

I guess the bottom line for me is that I was intimidated by the need for one or two immediate, actionable ways to do my part. By stepping back and realizing that the very act of consideration was probably the most important actionable item, the pressure has been removed. I am trying to do a better job of considering the impact of the purchases and decisions I make (even little things like whether to buy a new bottle of water or not). I by no means am a model environmental citizen, but I think I’m at least going in the right direction.

March 18, 2007

More likemind

[Editor's Note: In case you haven't been keeping up with likemind here's the latest email we sent out. (I also am way to busy at the moment to write a proper entry.)]

Well folks, it’s almost been a month since we all met last. On Friday, March 16th, 17 cities around the world will be enjoying coffee and conversation. Here are the details:

likemind ny

where: sNice, 45 Eighth Avenue, at West 4th Street, NYC (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (EST)

hosts: piers and noah

likemind sf

where: Cafe De La Presse, 352 Grant Ave., corner of Grant and Stockton, SF (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (PST)

hosts: mark and tad

likemind sea

where: Cafe Appassionato, 1417 Queen Anne Ave N., Seattle (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (PST)

hosts: scott and elizabeth

likemind cph

where: Risteriet, Studiestræde 36, Copenhagen (MAP)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (CET)

hosts: casper

likemind bos

where: Starbucks, 755 Boylston Street, btwn Exeter and Fairfield, Boston (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (EST)

hosts: stephanie and gareth

likemind la

where: Susina Bakery & Cafe, 7122 Beverly Blvd., btwn N La Brea and N Detroit, Los Angeles (Google Maps)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (PST)

hosts: lauren and jamie (guest host: jay)

likemind dal

where: Panera Bread, 7839 Park Lane, just west of 75, Dallas (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (CST)

hosts: mack and paul

likemind lon

where: The Breakfast Club, 33 D’Arblay Street, btwn Berwick and Wardour, London (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8:30am (GMT)

hosts: amanda and verity (guest host: daniele)

likemind mal

where: Solde kaffebar on Regementsgatan 2, Malmö (MAP)

when: friday, march 16 at 9am (CET)

hosts: david and bjorn

likemind min

where: Espresso Royale, 1229 Hennepin Ave, btwn. N 12th and N 13th, Minneapolis (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (CST)

hosts: herb and sarah

likemind anc

where: Pasticceria Saracinelli, Corso Mazzini Giuseppe, 82, Ancona (MAP)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (CET)

hosts: luca and antonio

likemind orl

where: Lake Eola Panera Bread, 227 North Eola Drive, btwn E. Washington and E. Robinson, Orlando (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (EST)

hosts: ryan and alex

likemind jkt

where: Starbucks, Setiabudi One Jalan HR Rasuna Said, Jakarta (MAP)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (WIB)

hosts: arya and ucup

likemind hh

where: Galeria Coffee Shop, Müggenkampstrasse 7, U-Bahn Lutterothstrasse, Hamburg (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8 (CET)

hosts: matthias and jens

likemind sto

where: Scandic Anglais, Humlegårdsgatan 23, Stockholm (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (CET)

hosts: mikael and mikaela

likemind ams

where: Koffiesalon (top floor), Utrechtsestraat 130, Amsterdam (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8:15am (CET)

hosts: koert and sveta

likemind cpt

where: Vida e Caffe, Main Road, Greenpoint, Cape Town (GOOGLE MAPS)

when: friday, march 16 at 8am (SAST)

hosts: david and richard

————–

That’s about it, watch out for more cities next month and don’t forget to mark Friday, April 20th and Friday, May 18th on your calendars.

March 14, 2007

The Art of Making it Happen

Back in October I was at SFMOMA and saw Duchamp’s Fountain. I had seen it before, but was especially struck by the card that went along with the piece. It read: “Fountain was what Duchamp called a readymade, an object elevated to the status of art not because he had created it, but because he had chosen it.”

It’s exactly the kind of thing people look at and say, “I could have painted that” and then break into a speech about how it’s not really art? That bugs me. More and more lately I’ve been of the belief that art is in large part the very act of declaring it so.

Hear me out: Duchamp’s Fountain is admittedly an everyday object that he raised to elite status. But part of what makes it deserving of being housed in an exhibit like the one at SFMOMA is that Duchamp had the balls to call it art. He navigated the system and got it into a museum, there’s certainly beauty in that kind of hustle.

Now think about some of the great modernist painters? They brought new styles and ideas to the forefront. They challenged conventional wisdom. In many ways they are the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit. What we now take for granted as ‘art’ was once anything but.

I’ve been watching a documentary series of Christo and Jeanne-Claude for whatever you might say about their work, the fact that they make it happen is really quite magical. How many people would even know where to start the process of placing hundreds of gates in Central Park?

In one of the videos Christo alludes to this fact, explaining to a community board who was voting on whether to allow him to run a fence through a California town that they were all a part of his giant art project whether they agreed with it or not.

I’m not entirely sure where I’m going with all this, but I think the bottom line for me is that the act of creation deserves more credit than it gets. Lots of people have ideas and lots of others are supremely talented, but most people don’t bring them together and make something real. If I could get a picture of my big toe somehow placed in the Met then whose to say it’s not art?

What’s more, it’s further proof that anything is possible. Art and everything else are up for interpretation. I think I’ve written it before, but at some point the wheel didn’t exist and someone discovered it. Maybe 100 people realized it before, but it was that one caveman who realized it’s power that got all the credit.

That’s why we’ve got to make things happen.

March 9, 2007

Mistakes, Observations and Magic

Been up since 7am helping with the PSFK conference. Overall the day went off without a hitch.

I’m sure some of the official bloggers will have lots of in-depth insight. I just want to pull out the three things that I wrote down in my notebook today.

“Computers don’t make mistakes”

That comes courtesy of Laurie Rosenworld who was explaining why she chose to make art and design by hand and glue instead of Illustrator and Photoshop. Laurie does some amazing work with bits and pieces of saved type, photos and other assorted goodies. Everything is rough, but she brings beauty to it. She reminded me that the perfect solution isn’t always the best. Sometimes it’s nice to bring a human element to design (and marketing). (As a side note, Grant McCracken wrote a little about a conversation we had as it relates to Laurie’s work.)

Most of the time your insight’s an observation.

This one comes courtesy of Simon Sinek. It’s a point I’ve thought about in the past, but can’t be reminded of enough. It’s important to dig beneath the trends and find the truths that lay beneath. An observation is easy, anyone can make them: The talent is in a) turning your observations into a larger insight and b) understand the difference between the two. It brings me back to something I wrote about Drew and Renegade before I started working there: “For Neisser’s Renegade Marketing, this means looking for ‘truths’ not ‘trends.’ ‘Trends come and go,’ he says, ‘truths survive. Trends can provide color. Truths, substance.’”

Sure we all know these things, but how often do we remind ourselves to keep going deeper?

Don’t talk to people like they’re adults.

This comes from Mike Byrne of Anomaly who closed up the conference. Being a ‘serious’ adult is far less fun than being an innocent child. So how do we, as marketers, inspire the kind of hoping and dreaming that make up a kid’s every day life?

At first it was hard to tell if Mike was being serious or just taking the piss out of all of us. Turns out it was the former and in the end I think he nailed his point with a Coke commercial of all things:

For just a moment you can’t help but think maybe there is some magic inside the machine . . . Why doesn’t more marketing do that?

March 7, 2007

Post-FMS, Pre-PSFK

Next week is big for marketing events in NYC. Monday is Future Marketing Summit and Tuesday is the PSFK Conference.

To celebrate, Gareth and I have decided to co-host a little shindig.

When: Monday, March 5 at 7pm
Where: Spring Lounge on 48 Spring Street (at Mulberry)
Who: Anyone that feels like having some beers

I’m pretty sure that’s it. Feel free to tell anyone, pass the word along, anything else. There’s no RSVP (though if you want to let me know you’re going to be there that’d be cool). Essentially Gareth and I shall show up and drink beers with whomever else walks through the door.

Hope to see you then.

On, and help spread the word. Feel free to grab that graphic and do with it what you will.

March 1, 2007