I just wanted to recommend this thought as the theme resonates with me right now - The Laws of Simplicity. Speaking from experience, it really is so hard to get simplicity right…

The natural tendency of people around me is that simple is easy, and that they don’t want anything that’s too simple. It’s in our nature to over-complicate, and start adding features and doodads in an effort to make something look sexier. The approach that I aspire to is a little bit more different:

What is that one thing that I can help people with, and how do I focus on that and make that so simple that it becomes sexy? A reductionist theory in an odd sense. That might not work for everyone intuitively when they are off building products, or solutions… but that approach, as far as I can see, has worked for me (while the former approach of adding odds and ends at a whim without having a clear idea of THE ONE USE for the tool/site/service has been, well, kind of disastrous…).

It’s hard. It’s often much harder to pour your soul into one thing than to dabble in many (that just about sums up men & commitment heh). But I think at least it’ll put me in good stead moving forward.
Thus, I wanna get my hands on the book (I haven’t read it yet, so can’t really recommend it yet).

Books, Technology, Simplicity | 6 Comments »

Just wanted to surface up for a little breath for a while to kinda give an update of where I’m at right now:

• Keeping a low profile because things are getting a little insane project-wise. (Pure laziness and procrastination to be blamed as well!).
• I’ve also been kept busy on the music side of things by writing some more songs, re-writing old songs and playing a handful of impromptu and ad hoc gigs at hideout.
• I’ve also been trying to get a few ideas off the ground, and majorly focusing on trying to focus my efforts instead of spreading myself way too thin across too many things.

I know the update’s a bit general, but we’ll see where it goes from here .

Ramblings | No Comments »

Courtesy of Daryl’s blog, I’ve stumbled across the Tesla electric sports car, and it’s now the car that I want (now if only I had that darn license…). Wow!

Which brings me to another topic - Wow versus Good Enough. This is something I spotted over at Uncommon Sense for Software. I do agree with Craig. A product CANNOT be just good enough. Just CANNOT.

I (and I suspect most customers) am not impressed by most of the stuff that’s currently out there. And something like an electric car that beats a petrol sports car doesn’t come by very often. Even the iPod took a while to grow on people.

Wow requires the 1% inspiration (the RIGHT inspiration) followed by the 99% perspiration, but both are equally important. One can’t go with the other methinks. To compound that, a management guru type said, geniuses are all heretics, but heretics are rarely geniuses.
For the rest of us plebeians, life has to go on, and we have to go on impressing, and ship not good enough, but MORE than good enough products out the door. Therein lies the crunch - Betting on how much more good enough will tip the scales is the make or break.
My creed: Look for WOW, aim for WOW, dream of WOW, work for the WOW, but don’t starve to death. Same principle applies to the other WOW (World of Warcraft) come to think of it…

Just another random musing.

Ramblings | 4 Comments »

This is hilarious. Check out this gem from the blog:

we’d like to make clear that you should please only use “Google” when you’re actually referring to Google Inc. and our services.

I’ll not go into the marketing aspects of a genericized trademark since Google has put it so succinctly. But they must be joking… asking consumers to “please” not overuse the word google as a verb

Yeah right. Sure I won’t.

Internet | 2 Comments »

Yesterday night, had drinks with Richard Edelman along with Mediaslut, Debbie from Marketing, Brown, Daryl, Bjorn, Justin, Popagandhi and a bunch of new folks I just met including Joe Augustine (the radio Joe), and Jennifer from Stomp.

Edelman was primarily there to listen, and soak, and shared a bit about how bloggers (as media) were gaining importance and that the focus should be pushed more into the long tail than the short head. Interesting stuff, but to add my two cents:

The SHoMNoLT!

From this psuedo-marketer’s point of view, a PR agency isn’t quite equipped to handle the tail and the peer conversations like that. Or at least, it can’t be approached just from a PR point of view. What do I mean by a PR approach?

When you try to identify the Short Head of a Micro Niche of the Long Tail (SHoMNoLT?!?!) and approach them for (unbiased) product tryouts (a la Nokia with several bloggers), you are taking a traditional PR approach. Get your word out. Get your product out. Make noise!

But how many bloggers are you gonna approach? I don’t have as many readers as either popagandhi or mrbrown, or miyagi. But I guess I am the short head of a micro niche of the long tail. Do I get one? Off the top of my head, I know like 10 other bloggers who should get a pitch as well. Hmmm… that’s quite a lot of effort actually.

The BR Agencies

And that brings it beyond the realm of PR. It becomes a marketing game. Talking to influentials. The sneezers. Bloggers in the SHoMNoLT are not the media. Bloggers are people (to quote brown in the dinner). A whole group of people in fact. They have to be marketed to… and yes, with the special care and attention given the journalists as well. Except that bloggers have a greater chance of being evangelists if they like the product. And, in the end, only the product and/or its brand matters.

Which means that PR agencies attempting this are at the mercy of the clients, more so that in the world of press releases. Which means that PR agencies need to become marketing powerhouses, conduits back into the client-side. And good luck finding a client like that!

Of course, people ALSO get confused and mistake media that use blogging (Stomp, The Pitch - sorry Debbie!!!), for the SHoMNoLT that Edelman is apparently after. Media is media, bloggers are bloggers. Similarities are shared of course, but viewpoints are different.

Media need advertising, and (wittingly or not) tend to be more susceptible to message massages. Bloggers are consumers first. They don’t give a damn. If it sucks, it sucks. Of course, some people are more forgiving than others.

Treat these two differently. Be a PR agency to one, and a BR agency (an agency marketing to influentials really) to the other. I’m an influential, a sneezer, an early adopter! Market to me! Give me products to try out! Have a conversation with me! Don’t stick me into a hotel ballroom.. I’ve got work to do during office hours!

The Finale

Yup. That’s the conclusion. Two different segments of bloggers requiring two different approaches. That’s my take. And it’s probably a synthesis of the comments that were going round the table yesterday, so I could have inadvertantly stolen some ideas. 

So if you are in a PR/BR agency… please e-mail me and I’ll tell you where to send the products for me to try out.

technorati tags:PR, Blogosphere, Edelman, Marketing

Media, Internet, web 2.0 | 3 Comments »