Category: Nick's Brain

im a fan of lebron james. he’s my age, from ohio, and doing pretty well at his job. he’s a physical specimen, what seems to be like a pretty good guy (enter tiger snark here) and some are calling him one of, if not THE, best who ever lived…

except he’s not that last bit. not even close.

lebron has a problem. he’s not alone. plenty of people our age have it. it’s a product of environment and upbringing. it’s a reflection of society.

lebron (maybe the best finisher ever) has a problem finishing things. he has a problem sustaining focus and maintaining intensity across a series. the guy can take it to the rim, get his shot or get a call any Any ANY time he pleases. however, in game 4 he had 18 shots and 7 turnovers.

unacceptable.

game 3 - he owns things. game 4, not so much. he needs to bring his A-game every single night. he needs to finish a series. he may bring up his lack of supporting cast, or the difficulty in sustaining that level of play, but quite simply… i don’t want to hear it. jordan and kobe can do it, so can you. until you decide to, you don’t get to be part of those conversations. your name is scrubbed from those sentences.

i find this pattern with a lot of people my age. our generation has been celebrated at every twist and turn of our lives. medals for trying, ribbons for effort and applause no matter what. guess what - no one cares. we need to champion achievement, period. we’ve bread a culture of mediocrity and entitlement. until you are on top, don’t stop. until you’ve won it all, lebron, you’ve won nothing.

decide to be great. work until you get there. don’t turn it on and off. win, and leave no room for questions.

brand can mean a lot of things to a lot of things to a lot of people these days.

we’re hearings about consumer goods and retail products living and dying based on ‘brand’ as actual product has little true differentiation. we know that consumers have the control - that they dictate what the brand is. we’re also seeing millions of dollars being spent/invested in brand development, strategy and deployment.

Here’s Seth Godin’s definition of brand:

A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. (source)

i think he’s on to something here. instead of talking about all of the assets and palettes and logo variations and guidelines and taglines and paid representatives and placements that comprise ‘major brands’ and ‘billion dollar brands’… talk about the role of a brand in a story or experience and the outcome because of it.

companies should be telling their consumers’ stories. if a product/good/brand is truly doing its job - if it is serving the customer/client and adding value by enhancing or creating an experience, then telling the consumers’ stories will, by default, be telling the brand story.

the vids below are examples in a specific industry - spirits - but i think the spots do a great job of telling stories about people. you find yourself understanding them not only in these instances, but imagining the back stories as well as projecting into the future and being able to construct what very well could be. you are thinking about people and experiences and thus the brand evolves from a usage situation into much more. it is a part of a lifestyle, a component in a process, an element in a look, a feel, an atmosphere. the brands assume characteristics of those who have purchased it, or, is it vise versa? the blur is the goal.

what brands should tell your story? what are the brands that, removed from your life, would remove part of your story?

and my very favorite (messaging and execution)

Crown Royal - Boss -

you know you’re in the right direction when the founders can be away, and every aspect of the business continues and even grows.

This past week it was announced that Barack Obama is the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Really?

Things to think about -

1. Nominations for this prize were due February 1, 2009. That’s less than 1 month after President Obama assumed office.

According to Alfred Nobel’s will, the peace prize should go to an individual who:

during the preceding year [...] shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.

2. I believe bestowing this award is really the the Nobel Committee doing what they can to box President Obama into his campaign rhetoric which focused heavily on international relations and specific U.S. participation on the world stage. Since assuming office, the President has, obviously, been dealing with some high-priority domestic issues. They are nudging you, Mr. President.

3. Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are both former recipients of this award. I think this award is also the Nobel Committe sticking it to President George W. Bush in their own way.

I do think that President Obama is a fantastic speaker (though he and his team should have rethought content for both he and his wife in Copenhagen!) and seems to be committed to socio-economical and geo-political progress (define progress?) in the global theatre, but the award of this prize, considering timing and absence of real action, significantly decreases my respect for the Committee and the award. Shame on them for leveraging their position for political statements and hope for action.

This morning as I began to juggle the 1023913249 things I do on a given day, I had to listen to a voicemail left on our office phone. I knew when it had been left - last night at 7:30pm - because I was still in the office but was head down working and not answering the phone at that time on a Thursday night.

So, I took the time to listen this morning. JOY! It was a recorded message from Mary Jo Kilroy inviting us to come talk about how to create jobs in Ohio, talk about our dependence on foreign oil and green technologies. (Side note - funny she wants to talk about job creation as my city - Columbus - is about to pass an income tax hike which REALLY PUMPS US UP to continue to locate and grow our business downtown. Smell the sarcasm? No, but it’d be cool if you could, right?)

Ok, seriously?

1) A recorded message mass distributed via phone (and a voicemail at that!) is F’ING stupid. Apparently she and her staff/consultants are not being exposed to the new rules of engagement and best practices that are getting just a little bit of coverage these days - personal, new media, social web, etc etc. Oh wait, Pres. Obama has been… so you’d think Kilroy’s camp would too. No?

How do I, and most people, add things to their calendar? There is a digital invite and we have the ability to explore it and add it if we want to. If Kilroy’s crew is doing this (Facebook/Email/Twitter/Meetup/other), then I’m not aware… and I tend to have a decent finger on the pulse of such things in this city.

2) Our number is on the DO NOT CALL listing. Funny how these politicians passed that act…. but left a loophole for themselves.

So, the culmination of the medium (phone), the timing (7:30pm), the fact that we aren’t supposed to be contacted like this, the completely generic impersonal effort, and the fact that she wasted my time has left me a bit put off this morning.

I, like many others, get sick of hearing the (at this point) age-old quip “but I don’t care what you had for breakfast” specifically in reference to Twitter, but also to the use of social tools and social web behaviors in general.

So, for all of you naysayers, let me paint a picture for you…

Tehran, Iran - circa June 2009

Let me explain.

There are many questions to be asked regarding the “election”, not the least of which may be whether or not it matters who is president in a supreme-power theocracy. However, it is the events surrounding the recent happenings which are intriguing - a convergence of global social behaviors, technology, now-web and modern web application development practices and theory. In short, the techy geeky “stuff” which you presume to be a fad, isn’t. It is communication now; it is communication of the future. The results are profound.

Ingredients:

Global Social Behaviors - We live in a global economy and society. If you don’t believe that, please crawl back under your rock. It’s not just about multi-hemisphere conglomerates and international relations anymore, though. As is the common theme these days, it’s about the individual. Social technologies have connected the Common Joes of the world and they are genuinely interested in listening, talking, sharing, teaching, helping and learning from each other. From Bengal to New Hampshire they are participating in each others’ daily lives and having trivial(?) conversations.

Technology - It’s cheaper, more powerful, more accessible and better mastered than ever in history. We all know a computer as powerful as my iPhone used to be the size of an entire room… blah…blah…blah. The amazing capabilities of technology today, IMHO, are not so much computational, but connective combined with the ease by which they can be applied. You can connect almost anywhere. You can connect with almost anything… and that’s the point… YOU can do it.

The mobility of technology is also a key component. Mobile phones and smart-phones are of the utmost importance.

Modern Web Application Development Practices and Theory - Non-technicals stick with me here… there are a few crucial aspects of how people and companies develop web applications these days. Namely, the primary focus is on the engine - the core functionality. Many developers build and release Software Development Kits (SDKs), most commonly Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), for their applications. These tools, libraries, protocols and services allow other developers to leverage the engine in unique ways - pulling, pushing and mashing up data and interfaces. If you’ve ever seen a Google Map with unique data or elements in it, you’re seeing the result of an API. Users and developers find new uses for applications and engines all the time. Google is releasing it’s APIs for it’s new project - WAVE - to developers around the world long before the application will be accessible to the public. The idea is that thousands of progressive and diverse minds will help to finish the product, find new uses and  make it better. So, applications are being released “unfinished” and “wide open”. *Note -Ownership and monetization are another story!

Still shrugging and saying ’so what?’, huh? -

Tehran - People are trying to mobilize, trying to tell the world what is happening, but communications are being shut down. Traditional media are being banned. Sites are being blocked. But remember - people around the world are watching, people around the world want to help, people around the world care. Technology is accessible, connective and collaborative and our good friends at Twitter are aligned with the API-empowered web community.

What does this mean?

This means that because Twitter has an API, Twitter.com is not the only access point to the engine. It means that there exist 1000s of 3rd party applications through which people can read and publish tweets. Tehran can’t block them all, they don’t even know about them all. Fantastic! The masses with their mobile phones can be anywhere, communicate with each other, organize, assemble, and keep the rest of the world up-to-date while foreign journalists are being “controlled” and mass media is dropping the ball (have a look here too).

Well, what about connectivity? Internet access? If you can’t connect, you can’t tweet. Tehran certainly has control over access, right? Yes and no. Enter software engineer in Oklahoma who is interested in the situation and wants to contribute. He configures his laptop as a proxy and whala - people in Tehran can connect to TwitterFall through his computer and communications resume. That is, until Tehran finds him, and blocks his proxy. But then, another pops up in the UK, in Florida, in Singapore… you get the picture.

So let’s summarize that. People in Iran can communicate with each other and with the rest of the world while their government is scrambling to block things as quickly as they can because they have mobile technology, the global community cares, is interested, can facilitate connectivity, and because modern web applications focus on the what, not the how/when/where.

Does it matter? I sure think so. A major geopolitical occurence was consumable in real-time and not only that… but it was MADE POSSIBLE in real time because of this convergence. Still not convinced it matters? Well, the State Department decided it did too… they contacted the crew over at Twitter - a small group in a loft in SOMA - and asked them not to go offline for scheduled maintenance because… well… Twitter was contributing to democracy.

How da ya like DEM apples?

GI Generation - The Silent Generation - Baby Boomers - Generation X….

to my peers:

I say we just keep killin’ it, & let them define our generation by our results, not by our ‘childhood’ & default uncontrollable environment.

-Nick

Thought it was interesting to take a look at the 4 browser windows and multiple tabs that I have open right now and see what I’ve accumulated but have yet to read in the last day or so. Here’s a sampling:

CNet on Facebook

crowdsourcing resource

facebook in wsj: facebook generation

@getshust AdAge article on SXSW

google rolls out semantic search capabilities

brick and mortar meets social media

prezi - the new ppt?

ohio growth summit

the art of self-imposed deadline: HBS

miami design collaborative

financial mcarthyism

the conversational interface

atlas shrugged - wsj

taleb on the financial crisis