Notes From Akash

Is being a non-profit the future for newspapers like the Wash Post?

Great piece by Steve Coll in the New Yorker. In this piece, he cites a few presigious college investment managers that have said being a non-profit with endowments like colleges/universities might be how newspapers like the Post survive. Following the newspaper industry as it struggles and having posted on it before I thought this piece was particularly intriguing.

Up late tonight looking at the upcoming schedule for Ad:Tech Chicago. Draftfcb, the company I work for, has three great speakers, including yours truly. I will be on a Social Media Industry panel moderated by Geoff Ramsey, CEO of eMarketer.

Although I skipped the Chairman’s event tonight, I’m looking forward to taking full advantage of the next two days.

Last week I posted quickly in reference to the Tour De France Nike Chalkbot idea, about how after some brainstorm sessions I started to question how we’re coming to tactics first vs. strategy or ideas.

And of course two people have gone out and expressed in more depth what I find at fault about this practice.

First Seth Godin:

In my experience, people get obsessed about tactical detail before they embrace a strategy… and as a result, when a tactic fails, they begin to question the strategy that they never really embraced in the first place.

And then Paul Isakson about the shiny objects we choose:

Given all of that [read what he refers to here], it’s very likely that a majority of a lot of companies’ fish aren’t on Facebook, or any other social media platform for that matter. This is why, to the point of Matt’s post, if you start planning your marketing around tactics based on where the fish aren’t, it simply doesn’t matter.

As I have tapered off on running, I’ve been getting more interested in biking. Dusting off the bike I bought during two years of marathon training and also watching the Tour de France in spurts this year.

The video talks about the technology behind a great idea — once again from Nike. I am posting because I still think there’s a lack of imagination many times in what you can accomplish today. Having finished up this year’s round of brainstorms for 2010, I think it’s still evident that many of us (myself included) think inside each medium and not how each piece can essentially play a role in the greater good.

Gallery of Chalkbot images here.

Starbucks looks to go lean, be more like Dunkin and McD's

Reading this made me think about where SBux is now. A company that used to stand for quality, customer service and wanted me to enjoy having some coffee at the store is taking it all back, now they want me in and out as fast as possible.

I hope more companies when they focus on value creation stick to their philosophy ten years down the road. In Starbuck’s case it’s do or die as they have 11,000 stores to keep open now.

The start of an argument for the interactive industry to move beyond CTR as its primary metric

This American Life had an episode not too long ago where they featured an advertising copywriter. Absolutely worth listening to, and it’s act one.

Act One. Mad Man.

TAL producer Sarah Koenig tells the story of her father, Julian Koenig, the legendary advertising copywriter whose work includes the slogan “Timex takes a licking and keeps on ticking” and Volkswagen’s “Think Small” ads. For years Sarah has heard her dad accuse a former partner of stealing some of his best ideas, but until recently she never paid much attention.Then she started asking her dad for details of this fight for his legacy, and what she learned surprised her. (20 minutes)

Another fine example of how mobile and augmented reality could be game-changers.

On a recent visit to NYC, I used the Google Map and Yelp app more than a dozen times a day. My iPhone was the most important tool I had to get to our next destination or make plans on the fly.

In case you missed the first example which I tweeted last week, showing the London Tube and it’s intersection with mobile.

Ponder this: could defining your fears be more important than defining your goals?

My answer is yes and it’s a bit of both. True goals come from understanding your fears and what is behind those fears. This applies easily to the marketing world. In your next planning or strategy session, start defining the fears then apply ways to overcome those.

how to properly use technology like augmented reality, US postal service gets it right