whizdumb

The Art of Idea Preservation

Awhile back I went to see Alex Bogusky speak as part of the launch of the New Denver Ad Club.  One thing that I found interesting was when he referenced the progression of the Truth vs. the Miller Lite campaigns. 

He encouraged tolerance in evolving a campaign over time.  Referring to a Miller client he said something to the effect of, "when a creative approach is not working perfectly to their liking, some feel the need to put a bullet in it, rather than learn from it and evolve the approach."

That thought came back to me today as I was perusing blogs on architecture.  In my wandering I found an interesting little flash video on a site dedicated to art of preservation, specifically an effort to save the 1960 Blue Cross building in Boston.  The group espouses the many creative ways the aging building can be preserved - rather than demolished.

Specifically, they pose some interesting What If questions about preserving buildings that can clearly apply to other things:

What if we considered the degrees of preservation between ALL and NOTHING?

What if we thought of preservation through the ideas of artist Gordon Matta-Clark?
What if we thought of preservation through the act of demolition?
What if we integrated a building into new development?
What if we expressed a buildings ideas and concepts through anatomical exhibition?
What if we re-inhabited a building by dissecting it?
What if we treated a building as public art?
What if we distribute remnants of a building to plazas and museums?
What if we move the building from its site?

Could we use degrees of preservation to educate?
Could we better heighten awareness of a building's original value in an altered state?
Could we increase the perceived value of design in the public consciousness?
Could we preserve our cultural heritage while embracing our future?

I think there's a lot we marketers can learn from architecture.  And maybe this can help open the doors for asymmetrical ways to rethink a flagging campaign, rather than running to the nearest phone to summon the wrecking ball.

Coffee Morning 10/19 recap

First things first.  The pictures I took at Coffee with my new phone didn't come out well.  Actually what I mean is they came out fine but people just looked bad.  You're all nice people but indoors early in the morning with a camera phone, it's a crap shoot. 

So instead I did a Google image search for 'i need a picture' and took the first image that came up.  (Woah, I just tried it again and it came up second). 

There it is.  WTF?  It's a consumer submitted video for TreeHugger.com and Seventh Generation's Convenient Truth Video Contest.  So if you fancy getting lectured to about consumer consumption by a pipe cleaner, check it out.  Wow, talk about irony.  Is this karmic retribution for Coffee Mornings' consumer marketing jabber?  Who knows.

Back to coffee last Friday.  We were joined by Ameet, Jennifer, Monique, Dave, Anoud, Erin, Melissa, Ken (of the Pure Thinking blog.  He wrote his own coffee recap here), and newbies Joe and Tommy. 

Joe just moved to town and is looking to land in a corporate communications or marketing role of some sort (Joe, leave a comment with any other details or contact info if you like). 

Monique is a planner at McClain Finlon, and she let everyone know that they're hiring.  So if you're a planner looking for a home check 'em out.  I believe Sarah Miller is the head of planning over there.  I've never met her I know she's trying to make it to coffee one of these days. 

Tommy has worked for some time at Comedy Works helping them to operate and expand their business and he had some really interesting perspective on comedy as an art and as a product.  For example, a good comic should have you laughing 4-5 times per minute.  I never really thought about that.  But it is a product and it's got, well I guess, metrics.   He also talked about the ratio of practice material versus tried and true material.  In a 15 minute set there may be 2-3 minutes of experimental stuff.  If you err on the high side that's 20% experimental.  Putting stuff out there to see if it sticks. You can see where I'm going with this...

What if brands allocated 20% of their ideas / product innovations / media spend to purely experimental stuff?  Things that might polarize.  New ground.  It's not unlike a regular innovation pipeline, but just put out there with the rest of it all, not researched in test markets and groups.  Just as there's nothing quite like a live audience in a comedy club, there's little to truly replace really going for it with a product launch in the real world.

Anyway, Tommy was also kind of segmenting comics among comics versus performers.  Dane Cook, for example, he considered a performer.  I'd probably put Robin Williams and maybe Bill Hicks in that category after watching a clip that Craig posted. On second thought, I think Hicks may be in a category all his own!

Incidentally, he's also a comic (performer?) himself.  Tommy, you've got to let us know the next time you're on stage.  I promise not to throw rotten tomatoes.

Ameet was sharing some thoughts from a presentation he recently attended on innovation by Tony Ulwick (Download the ppt here).  It makes the case for devising solutions that meet unmet consumer needs.

A few other topics came up but that's all I've got time for now.  Anyone have anything to add?

Live Earth off and running

Live Earth just kicked off earlier today.  I'm really hopeful for this effort.

I've been poking around some of the content lately and found these fantastic videos that each offer bite sized arguments for becoming climate savvy.  My favorite has to be the 15-minute Reunion of Spinal Tap.  Derek Smalls and the band getting back together for climate change?  Now that is rich in comedic potential right there.

There is a lot of buzz about Live Earth and plenty of talented people involved raising awareness for it.  Among them are the guys at North who are behind the messaging strategy and are driving interest in the thing without spending a dollar on media.

The Alliance For Climate Protection, the home base for Al Gore and Live Earth, has loads of content and things to explore on their site.  Included there is their first official ad, called Black Balloons.  I really like this spot because of how it brings 'bad air' to life in a personal way.  While you're there join the pledge and help make a difference. 

Before we all fry.

(If that does happen let's at least go out in style). 

Contain yourself

When I saw this it really resonated. It's not just that it's a clever way of talking about sustainability, it's that it kind of demonstrates how the dialogue in Europe is so far ahead of what it is here.

In the US we're just starting to inch toward a consensus that yes, climate change is human caused. So much delay in fact, that we are possibly heading for a tipping point of the worst kind. The UN's report talks about it in uncharacteristically alarmist terms.

Anyway, my point is not to depress you but rather to say 'yes' to work like this that seeks to entertain rather than simply shock - or better still, to do both.

Thanks to Craig for forwarding.

Good things

Well it's a new year and I've been thinking a lot about brands, sustainability and purpose lately.  There is actually a strong case to be made that companies and consumers are ahead of agencies in bringing it to the forefront.

One indicator of this: Fleishman-Hillard did a study on corporate social responsibility that highlighted the sleeping giant of relevance that is purpose-driven propositions.  It's good to see. 

A few other bites:

Wal-Mart's big push on sustainability.   The scale of it is pretty amazing. 

The compact fluorescent light bulb as a revolutionary icon.       

A reality TV show on HGTV featuring environmentally conscious celeb Ed Begley.

And a new magazine called GOOD.  That's the cover of their second issue.  I really like this one.  It's started by Ben Goldhirsh, Albert Gore (Al's son), and a number of other smarty pants rich kids just out of college. 

They're going against the tide by starting a new magazine but they've got a lot of ideas and an underserved market of people who want to connect to these issues on a lighter, more creative level. 

As an example, in their first issue they commissioned WK12 to visually bring to life the essence of America.

The spread below was part of the result.  A brilliantly simple play on royal crests depicting selected bits of genius and gusto that dot America's resume.

The magazine goes on to write about everything from prefab houses and organic chefs to couch surfing and the growing acceptability of plastic surgery.

They demonstrate that a social conscience need not be a burden avoided by the masses; it can be fun, creative and curious.   

The interesting thing about all these 'purposeful' things is that they amount to a sentiment larger than green and sustainability.  You could say that purpose is the umbrella that houses everything from global warming to breast cancer (in my opinion product (RED) is the best example so far of the sweet spot). 

As a planner this is exciting to me...  while purpose is not a new value to people, it is ripe to play a more legitimate role in brand-consumer relationships.