Smart data: business lessons from the Battle of Midway

I’ll take smart data over big data anytime. Smart data is all about interpreting data to make a wise decision, whether you’re trying to understand your customers or attempting to outsmart your competition. Seventy years ago, the U.S. Navy and the Imperial Japanese Navy gave the world a dramatic demonstration of smart data in action during the Battle of Midway. The decisive and important naval victory for the United States still teaches lessons today about making wise choices with information.

As recounted in the recently published book Inferno: The World at War, 1939-1945, by Max Hastings, the battle of Midway unfolded June 4-7, 1942, near the Midway atoll. The Japanese forces, led by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, conceived of the assault in order to achieve a knockout blow against the U.S. Navy — which was reeling only six months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and military setbacks shortly thereafter.  But the U.S. forces, led by Admiral Chester M. Nimitz, held a distinct advantage: its codebreakers had broken the JN-25 code used by Japanese forces to communicate with each other. The U.S. knew where the Japanese were going to strike and used that information to repulse the attack. But of course breaking the code in and of itself did not guarantee victory. The deciding factors were:

1. A bold decision

Breaking the code meant that the Americans expected Midway to be the target – but even still, no one knew for sure. Someone had to decide whether to place faith in the accuracy of the intelligence uncovered by U.S. Commander Joseph Rochefort – at a time when intelligence gathering was an inexact science at best. Writes Hastings: “[E]xactitude of knowledge was still lacking. In a vast ocean, it remained hard to pinpoint ships, or even fleets . . . despite Commander Rochefort’s magnificent achievement, uncertainty and chance characterized Midway.”

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Tags: big data, David Deal, Inferno, Max Hastings, Midway, Nimitz, smart data, Superhype, Ticketmaster, World War II, Yamamoto

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Major League Baseball shows trust on Twitter

Major League Baseball trusts its Twitter fans. When Kansas City Royals Hall of Famer George Brett joined Twitter, the @MLB Twitter account posted this tweet:

If you’re not a Major League Baseball fan and don’t follow its rich history, the reference to “pine tar above the knuckles” is meaningless and perhaps confusing. But Major League Baseball trusts its fans to get the inside joke without needing to explain it. The 2 million baseball fans who follow MLB understand inherently that MLB is referring to the controversial 1983 “Pine Tar Game,” when Brett slugged a crucial home run against the New York Yankees – only to have the home run nullified by an umpire who ruled that Brett’s bat was coated with an excessive amount of pine tar. Brett’s angry reaction — charging from the dugout like a crazed bull — was captured for history (and would become a viral smash had the incident occurred now):

The Major League Baseball Twitter account informs, entertains, and celebrates baseball with a sense of humor, even with its About section (“We don’t understand the infield fly rule, either”). But most importantly, Major League Baseball trusts its fans by sharing content without overexplaining it. Do you?

Tags: David Deal, George Brett, Major League Baseball, MLB, Pine Tar Game, Pine Tar Incident, Superhype, Twitter

Posted in Digital, Social media, Twitter | No Comments »

Photobomb your brand

Have you photobombed your brand lately? At the recently conducted Social Media Strategies Summit in Chicago, social media superstars Ramon De Leon, the marketing mind of a six-store Domino’s Pizza franchise in Chicago, and Jessica Gioglio of Dunkin’ Donuts both showed how and why you should photobomb – or share your brand visually in unexpected places. Their approaches are tailor made for marketing in the age of Pinterest. For instance, recently Gioglio and the Dunkin’ Donuts Chicago social media team spent a day snapping images of the iconic Dunkin’ Donuts coffee cup juxtaposed against famous Chicago landmarks like the Art Institute of Chicago and the John Hancock Tower. Dunkin’ Donuts then shared the images via the Dunkin’ Donuts Chicago Twitter account and Pinterest board – a brilliant way to build brand love locally:

On the other hand, De Leon showed how photobombing can build excitement among employees and involve your fans. Especially because De Leon is known as an enthusiastic Domino’s Pizza brand ambassador, Domino’s Pizza employees are fond of sharing their photobombs with him, such as the delivery driver who sent to De Leon this photobomb at the statue of Michael Jordan outside of the United Center in Chicago:

De Leon creates his own photobombs on the job by involving Domino’s Pizza fans. For instance, as he explained to me, “I love to walk around campus with a Dominos Pizza flag. People either want to wave it for me or take pictures with it,” as shown in this image:

He also creates photo-ops with the Domino’s logo, such as the time he fashioned an “I Heart Domino’s Pizza” ad by creatively positioning Domino’s Pizza boxes while he was making a delivery at a college campus:

And Domino’s Pizza fans inspire De Leon with their own photobombs, such as this image submitted by two fans in New York:

“These user generated photos are incredible,” he told me. “This is when people see your logo and remember you. They take a photo and either tag (If Facebook) or cc you on Twitter usually with a saying, ‘Ramon, look at me.’”

De Leon shares all these photobombs through a massively popular channel: himself. He speaks at events ranging from the Disney Social Moms Celebration to Click 6.0 in Dubai. He sprinkles his talks with Domino’s Pizza photobombs and the stories behind him, which makes for lively presentations, shout-outs to fans and employees, and compelling advertising for Domino’s Pizza.

At a time when Facebook paid $1 billion for Instagram and Pinterest has become the third-most popular U.S. social media destination almost overnight, the message is clear to brands: figure out how to share your content visually or don’t share at all. Photobombing your brand is one way to do so. For more examples of how Dunkin’ Donuts shares visual content through a savvy social media outreach, check out my post on the iCrossing Great Finds blog, “How Dunkin’ Donuts Builds a Connected Brand with Social Media.”

Happy photobombing.

Tags: #RamonWOW, Chicago, David Deal, Domino's Pizza, Facebook, Instagram, Jessica Gioglio, Pinterest, Ramon DeLeon, Superhype, Twitter

Posted in Digital, Marketing, Social media, Twitter | 2 Comments »

And a child shall lead them

If I were an executive creator director, I would require everyone on my team to spend a day with children in a learning environment. Pre-teens are your future bosses and customers, and they’re already influencing purchasing decisions made in the home. Understanding how they learn and how they interact with technology can open your eyes and make you better at what you do. On April 26, a classroom of fourth graders showed me how their creative growth comes from “finding flow” (or immersing yourself in activities that make you lose sense of time), collaborating with others, and finding your lesser strength (or challenging yourself to get better at a skill that makes you uncomfortable). I blogged about my experience  on the iCrossing Great Finds blog. I hope you find a few moments to read what I learned and share your experiences, too. My Great Finds post is not the first time I’ve blogged about what kids have taught me. In 2008 on Superhype I discussed how kindergarteners taught me the importance of the journey and the power of pure joy. If you create anything for  living or for personal joy — and I’m guessing almost every Superhype reader does — find time to be with kids. Volunteer your time at a school. Find a local institution that involves kids performing community service. Even if you don’t particularly like being around kids — or perhaps especially if you dislike being around kids — I guarantee you’ll walk away with an insight. Embrace the uncomfortable and learn.

For more on the lessons that kids can teach adults, check out this TED Talk from Adora Svitak.

Tags: David Deal, iCrossing, Superhype, TED

Posted in Design, Marketing, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Coachella and the future of social TV

I experienced the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival from my living room along with tens of thousands of others around the world who tweeted, blogged, and otherwise hustled content about the annual music festival as artists ranging from Bon Iver to the resurrected Tupac Shakur lit up the California desert. My experience and others like mine suggest that social TV really means the social screen. And consumer participation in social TV can mean a lot more than TV viewers taking interactive pools and responding to trivia contests. Rather, advertisers should pay closer attention to our consumers’ roles as content hustlers.

So far, advertisers have associated social TV with viewers tweeting and Facebooking about the content they’re watching. But for me the real fun of Coachella occurred when I went beyond tweeting the predictable “OMG Tupac is back!” and started capturing high-resolution screen shots of the live stream and posted them on my Facebook wall and Twitter account in real time. I became a real-time Coachella photo essayist, entertaining night owls like Vanessa Franko, who included one of my screen grabs in her Coachella Storify: sfy.co/o8O

Brands can join the fun easily in real time, too, sponsoring social participants as we report on major events from our living rooms (“This Coachella livestream sponsored by PepsiCo”). The big-name bloggers probably don’t need to co-brand with advertisers. But a savvy brand would do well to build a network of lesser known influencers who together can create a ripple effect, as the research of Duncan Watts suggests.

Content hustlers like me are happy to accommodate, as we share content from major events like Coachella and the Grammy Awards across our digital living rooms.

Tags: Bon Iver, Coachella, social TV, Tupac Shakur, Twitter

Posted in Digital, Entertainment, Marketing, Music, Social media, Twitter | No Comments »

Lessons on creativity from the making of “L.A. Woman”

One of the landmark albums of rock and roll almost died in the recording studio. But today L.A. Woman endures as a lesson on how a change of scenery can unleash creativity. In December 1970, the Doors were floundering as they attempted to make L.A. Woman at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles. Lead singer Jim Morrison, lost in the grip of alcoholism, had run out of songs to write, and the band played so poorly that longstanding producer Paul Rothchild quit. So how did the Doors manage to create what is widely regarded as a rock masterpiece? As it turns out, the catalysts for change were the loss of their producer and a casual suggestion by Morrison to find another place to record.

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Tags: " "Crawling King Snake, " "The WASP", "Hyacinth House", "Love Her Madly", "Riders on the Storm, Bill Siddons, Bruce Botnick, David Deal, Doors, Doors Workshop, Elektra Records, Jac Holzman, Jerry Scheff, Jim Morrison, John Densmore, L.A. Woman, Marc Benno, Mr. Mojo Risin', Paul Rothchild, Ray Manzarek, Robby Krieger, Superhype

Posted in Entertainment, Music | 1 Comment »

Madonna doesn’t need all your luvin’

Wow. Madonna’s critics really have their knives out this week. But she might end up having the last laugh.

As you might have heard, sales of her latest album, MDNA, suffered the biggest second-week drop in chart history.  Since the news broke, the highly regarded Lefsetz Letter has stated bluntly that Madonna has lost touch with her audience. Forbes contributor Roger Friedman blames Madonna for creating boring songs and not caring. The problem is that her naysayers are measuring the wrong metric. Especially for multi-media brands like Madonna, sales of compact discs don’t count for much anymore – and haven’t for about 10 years. The real action for the Madonnas, U2s, and Bruce Springsteens of the world comes from sales of tickets and merchandise. We won’t be able to assess the health of the Madonna brand until the sales results are known for her 2012 World Tour, which begins on May 29 in Israel and comes to North America on August 28. So far, reports of preliminary ticket sales have been largely positive, but it’s best to wait until actual revenues are reported.

Ironically, MDNA was engineered to realize a sales drop – certainly not to the magnitude that Madonna probably expected, but a drop was indeed part of the plan. As Billboard reported, “MDNA’s” large fall was expected, as its debut was bolstered by sales gained from a concert ticket/album promotion as well as pre-orders from iTunes.” In other words, the CD supports the tour, not the other way around — a strategy that makes perfect business sense for a well established act.

By the way, do you know who previously held the record for the biggest second-week sales drop in history?

Someone by the name of Lady Gaga for Born This Way.

Tags: Billboard, David Deal, Lady Gaga, Lefsetz Letter, Madonna, MDNA, Superhype

Posted in Entertainment, Music | 7 Comments »

Your employee, your advocate

Josh Bernoff and Ted Schadler got it right. In their 2010 book Empowered, they argued the case for companies unleashing their employees as brand advocates especially through social media. (And they continue to discuss employee empowerment on their blog.) Progressive companies understand that building the corporate brand and investing in employee brands need not be mutually exclusive activities. Fortunately my employer iCrossing is one of those companies, as illustrated in two recently published blog posts about the value of employees as brand advocates.

In “How CMOs Can Empower Employees with Social Media Guidelines,” published April 4 on the iCrossing Great Finds blog, I discuss how social media guidelines can support, not restrict, employees as thought leaders and brand ambassadors. I cite the example of how iCrossing tripled the volume of employee blog contributions and boosted visits to our Great Finds blog by 74 percent in one year by helping employees find their social voices with guidelines (which we recently published). Our approach is to go beyond the predictable guideline do’s and don’ts and provide ideas for how employees can use social to speak to our audience of CMOs.

Meantime, in an April 6 Great Finds post, my colleague Nick Roshon asserts that “If Brands Are Publishers, Employees Are Authors” His post focuses on tools that brands and employees can employ to boost authorship authority (especially at a time when search engines like Google are increasingly rewarding content authority).

Nick asserts that CMOs need to “build up their employees as authors of thought leadership . . . Because Google and Bing are already rewarding content authors by making them more visible to search. As Google and Bing embrace technologies that reward the most prolific and authoritative content creators, CMOs that encourage employees to create thought leadership will build more visible and connected brands.

In other words: you can either ride a wave in the direction it is going or someone else will.

How do you empower your employees?

Tags: Bing, David Deal, Empowered, Forrester Research, Google, Great Finds, iCrossing, Josh Bernoff, Nick Roshon, social media, Superhype, Ted Schadler

Posted in Agencies, Digital, Google, Marketing, Social media | No Comments »

Guy Kawasaki’s golden rules

How well I remember being invited to participate in the newly launched Google+ in the summer of 2011. Right off the bat, Google Plus seemed different from Facebook. Its clean layout encouraged posting more long-form content and graphics. Its membership included luminaries like Guy Kawasaki and Chris Brogan. If Facebook was the biggest network in the world, Google+ was the coolest. Less than one year later, Google Plus has grown to 90 million members and still feels like a more forward-thinking network than Facebook. Facebook now looks a Google Plus follower, introducing features like Timeline and video chat features in response to the robust graphics and video functions of Google Plus. Guy Kawasaki’s new book, What the Plus! Google+ for the Rest of Us, provides an in-depth tour of the many Google Plus features that have made the platform so appealing to brands and individuals. On the iCrossing Great Finds blog, I discuss Guy’s new book. I read What the Plus! expecting to learn how to maximize the value of Google+, but I ended up finding broader meaning in Guy’s book. In advising people how to use Google Plus, Guy has articulated some new ground rules for prospering in the social era: think visually, be a content hustler, and treat social spaces like prized real estate — in other words, safeguard your own social turf (including your Google Plus page) and respect the social spaces you visit.

The best part about Guy’s book? His appeal for people to treat others as you’d have them treat you – and his frank advice to kick out jerks who invade your social turf and behave poorly. Let someone else be the arbiter of free speech while you focus on protecting your own brand.

Let me know what you think of What the Plus!

Tags: David Deal, Google, Google Plus, Great Finds, Guy Kawasaki, iCrossing, Superhype

Posted in Agencies, Google, Google Plus, Marketing | No Comments »

Real-time content marketing on Facebook

On March 30, whether you like it or not, Facebook will transition all brand pages to its Timeline format, which offers marketers more visually exciting ways to share their content. A new white paper published by my colleagues in the iCrossing Live Media Studio, The CMO’s Guide to the New Facebook, should help you capitalize on the new Facebook. iCrossing asserts that Facebook Timeline for brands is far more than a tweak to the world’s largest social network; rather, marketers need to understand that Facebook is compelling brands to think like publishers with editorial and content strategies that span paid, earned, and owned media.

The CMO’s Guide to the New Facebook suggests that being engaging is important – and an obvious appeal of the new visually compelling Timeline layout — but even more important is publishing engaging content that you can use as an advertising asset under the new Facebook.

For instance, as the paper reports, “Timeline now has a ‘Build Audience’ tab on the Admin Panel, which allows for the quick creation of a non-premium ad unit. Taking into consideration the greater emphasis the platform now places on paid media, audience managers can quickly create Sponsored Stories based on content that is highly-engaging at that moment. Brands now have a greater opportunity to leverage earned and bought media in real-time.”

The publication of the paper is, in itself, a tribute to Facebook’s massive reach. I don’t think of Facebook as a social network anymore. I think of Facebook as an advertising and marketing platform where people socialize. What are you doing to adapt to Facebook, the marketing machine?

Tags: Facebook, iCrossing, Live Media Studio, The CMO's Guide to the New Faceook, Timeline

Posted in Digital, Facebook, Marketing, Social media | No Comments »