New word for the cuss jar (where overused meeting jargon goes to die)…is “actionable”. “Actionable” goes right along with “best practices”. You wouldn’t use anything but your “best practices”, would you? As for “actionable insights”, well, if they aren’t anything I can take action on, they aren’t insights.
Today’s op-ed in the New York Times slamming Microsoft for its lack of innovation got me on this train of thought. (I do think MSFT has the opportunity to innovate, but that’s another post.)
There is a clear difference in DNA between companies that innovate and companies that don’t. A big piece of that is what I call “DRM thinking”.
“DRM thinking” is when you knowingly pit yourself against what your consumer wants, throw barriers in the face of usability, ignore market realities, and continue to convince yourself it’s okay.
DRM as it was applied to digital music is an unbelievable example of refusal to look at the whole picture. While labels and technology providers developed multiple forms of DRM, created differing levels of licensing and access for the consumer, and in general spent a whole lot of time trying to “get DRM right”, it was completely useless tech and a huge waste of time.
Anyone who wanted a perfect digital copy of a record without any copy protection whatsoever could just walk into a big-box retailer and spend $9.99 for the CD. (CD copy protection was tried, but there was never any indication that it was ever going to work, and it didn’t.) This went on for years.
Barring your front door doesn’t work very well if there is no back wall on the house.
DRM thinking is what holds back companies from innovation.
I kid, really, because I was excited to see a viable tablet, and if anyone can make it happen, it would be Cupertino. I was lucky enough to watch the unveiling from Robert Scoble HQ, along with my friend Don Dodge, and to watch Robert synthesize multiple live streams of video, audio, tweets, and photos into an overview of the event.
What did we think? The take was pretty much unanimous. We’ll all buy one because it’s a fun toy and that’s what we do. We love that the 16 GB base model is $499 but we want the 64GB 3G model at $829. We aren’t blown away. Scoble says “I was expecting a 10.0 and an 8.7 showed up.” What’s the use case?
I think there’s a potential new market for AAPL here. The theory seems to be that there is a consumer base that doesn’t need a workhorse computer, does not need enterprise, but wants to surf the Web, consume media, play games, and use the applications to which iPhone users have become addicted. The larger multi-touch screen is a great use of that technology. The iPad is really fun. It’s probably not really useful (more…)
Following upon the really interesting coverage Marc Gobe did in São Paulo – where no outdoor advertising of any kind is allowed, presenting both a challenge and an opportunity for marketers- The Artvertiser is a brilliant next step in public spaces, blurring the lines between public advertising and public art. From the site:
The Artvertiser considers Puerta del Sol Madrid, Times Square New York, Shibuya Tokyo and other sites dense with advertisements as potential exhibition space. The Artvertiser is an instrument of conversion and reclamation, taking imagery seen by millions and re-purposing it as a surface for presentation of art.
The Artvertiser software is trained to recognise individual advertisements, each of which become a virtual ‘canvas’ on which an artist can exhibit images or video when viewed through the hand-held device.
After training, where ever the advertisement appears, the chosen art will appear instead when viewed live through the hand-held device. It doesn’t matter whether the advertisement is on a building, in a magazine or on the side of a vehicle.
Right now you need the Artvertiser’s own binoculars or webcams to see the substituted art, although an Android port is in the works.
Cool, yes? Everywhere a particular brand or campaign appears, it is replaced with a new image.
We live in a time when not only does advertising constantly use art to its own ends, but art subverts advertising.
image courtesy of the artvertiser
Microsoft laid off about 800 people today. One of them was my friend and former Napster colleague Don Dodge. Don was a Director of Business Development in the Emerging Businesses unit, which is a fancy way of saying he evaluated startups mainly for possible acquisition by Microsoft.
I walked around TechCrunch 50 once with Don. He was inundated by the attending startup peeps. Don’t let anyone tell you that they’re too cool to want to be bought by Microsoft.
You can read what Don has to say about today in his blog here . What struck me most, besides the fact that Don now gets to write his own ticket in tech and do any one of a million things, is that he says he’s never had the time to think about what he might want to do. And it’s true for most of us. We’re rushing from city to city, country to country, and barely have time to tend our home lives properly (and some of us neglect that too). “The gift of time”, another ex-Napsterite, Milton Olin, used to call it. You get that gift when a lunch cancels last minute or you have that weekend at home after all. Being fired sucks. But if you’re smart and capable and know how to make the most of your skill set, it can also give you the gift of time and another, priceless gift – that of perspective. Being fired is the best thing ever to happen to many people I know.
Ahhh, the marketer’s blog. You have to have one, although one could make the excuse that microblogging takes its place. Still, in dig. media, we’re grappling with some fairly large and complicated ideas. 140 characters makes you pithy but doesn’t get to the heart of these matters.
I have NO excuse for neglecting the blog save for the fact that I’m working. A lot. On some really interesting branding projects. As soon as my practice settles into something approaching a well-oiled machine (ok, as soon as it becomes organized chaos and not just pure chaos), the blog will be back, because we are in a very weird place these days, especially in digital music and movies.
RT @jkraus: tip for entrepreneurs: extend an existing user habit with your product, don’t try and create a new one.