eROI NYC Interactive Agency

What defines a necessity? Well to me its something you can’t live with out. And now the Mobile Phone has passed the TV as being regarded as a “necessity”. According to a new Pew Research study the TV has joined the land line in suffering from “a sharp decline” in public perception that they are necessities of life. Here are some other interesting points:

-Just 42% of Americans say they consider the television set to be a necessity, compared to 52% in 2009
-Some 62% of Americans say the land line is a necessity of life, down from 68% last year.
-Over 47% now say that mobile phones are a necessity of life.
-Fully 82% of adults now use cell phones, up from 53% in 2000
-There are now more cell phones in the U.S. than landline phones.

I really want to try to view this from the corporation side…by “this” I mean of course Net Neutrality. I have spent a lot of time on this in August….but to really understand something you must look at it from all known sides and all known perspectives only then can you truly make an informed decision.  It sounds so easy but its really difficult to do . Because when I look at this thing from the corporate side I see full scale vertical monopoly.  They don’t just want the TV…the movie theater…the music….they want it all.  And that is never good for any of us.  I am reminded of the RATM lyric in Down Rodeo….”Fu*k the G ride I want the machines that are makin’ em.”   That’s exactly how we all should be looking at this. Don’t fooled by the shiny object on the screen….look past the entertainment. We all need the internet to be free.

So in the interest of truly understanding why this is important give Al 13 minutes to break it down. He pretty much nails it even if you hate AF you gotta respect his argument. Free Net Free Us.

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Well I guess technically it might be closer to Summer cleaning but let’s get in the mid set anyway. So what do we need to clean? Our digital lives. With the rapid growth of social and other forms of digital media I feel like my life’s inbox is inundated with updates and pings.   Of course there are tons of programs out there that help manage all this stuff but with even with these options I feel like I am losing grip of the messages that I truly want to receive. We need to think more basic. Here are two things that I think can really help us manage all this info:

Don’t feel bad to unfollow: Pulling from the good old annuals of the Free Market mentality…let’s let the market decide. Don’t be afraid to unfollow the guy who really doesn’t bring you any value. Value can be anything remember….even a providing a laugh is value enough for me.  In our rush to get friends and followers I think most if us started following people we really didn’t care about. Now there is something to be said for following the random person but seriously I am getting tired of reading tweets and updates that bring now value to me. And hey with this examination you have to be prepared to question the value of your own digital contributions. Do I bring value?

Multiple Accounts: Ok so there are some obvious things to point out. When I say multiple accounts I don’t mean one for every product you like or one for every friend or family members. Here is an example of what I mean, over the years I have noticed that although I want to receive grocery coupons via email I don’t necessarily want them clogging up my personal inbox everyday when I only need to reference them once a month. You see where I am going here. With so much access we owe it to ourselves to self regulate and self segment. Hmm did I coin a phrase?

Pretty sweet graphic fact sheet by Mashable. FB is huge man.

Remember those mass email forwards you used to get in the mid 90’s? I guess that was sort of the birth place of viral right? Anyway,  when was the last time you got one of those that was worth anything? Its probably been a minute.  That’s why I was pleasantly surprised this week when my Pops forwarded me one of those emails and it had a ton of value.  Check out the subtlties behind these 5 logos…I never realized these insights.

If you look at the center of this logo, you can see two people enjoying a Tostito chip with a bowl of salsa.

Their logo is actually made up of the letters M (on top) and B (below the m). These two letters also form a baseball glove.

The yellow swoosh looks like a smile: Amazon wants to have the best customer satisfaction. The swoosh also connects the letters a and z, meaning that this store has everything from a to z.

The first two letters of the VAIO logo represent the basic analogue signal. The last two letters look like a 1 and 0, representing the digital signal.

As we all navigate through this crazy period this age old adage still rings true, perhaps more than ever. It doesn’t matter if you are buying bread or a brand new shiny website you get what you pay for. It is so frustrating to think that there are people out there who expect a diamond but want to pay for it using the price of the coal. This is a pure venting post but damn it someone has to say it. I found this on a development blog and they say it best….

“And as is always the case, in every market, you get what you pay for. A $5000 car isn’t going to last as long or perform as well as the $50,000 car, and it isn’t going to come with warranties and support, either. It will do what you want, at least for a while, but you’re on your own when you take the cheap route.”

Pixelgeek has a great post on this topic too:

“Cheap designs don’t save money they cost more in the long run!Whats wrong with cheap web design? Usually cheap web design means corners were cut somewhere, using pre-built templates, stock photographs and cut/paste content. Unfortunately many people end up hiring someone that promises to build them a website for $500 bucks. They soon realize the person they hired can’t deliver what was promised and they end up with a website their not satisfied with. Many of these designers make low quality websites, fail to meet deadlines or worse yet they take your money and run. Many companies advertise $500 websites just to pull you in. The final bill is often many times that amount. Why hire a professional web designer? You get the benefit of an experienced professional who can solve problems, help you avoid costly mistakes and, most importantly, create you an attractive, affordable website designed specifically to meet your needs. You get what you pay for!”

The real gem in this excerpt is the bit about hiring a problem solver. That is what you want out of your web designer/agency. You want to work with problem solvers that can recognize the needs of your brand and execute properly even in the midst of static and distraction. That is the difference. That is what you pay for. And that is worth every penny.

I have been supporting Greenpeace for almost 2 years now. I actually converted with one of those Greenpeace guys on 23rd Street. I know, how could I right? Most people hate those guys, but he camped right in the spot where I used to smoke cigs and thus we got to talking. And isn’t that always the trick…just communicate. (communication means listening too).  At any rate I signed up to give them 5 bucks a month. A drop in the pan but in the world of micro-giving not bad. So I get their usual messaging….an email every month…oddly enough a DM piece every once in a while (doesn’t seem very Greenpeacey to send out junk mail…but for the 60+ crowd direct mail still works)…but I got an email from them this week that raises some issues with me. Although I applaud their effort to engage…the overall effort is weak and outdated.  I will let it speak for itself:

“Help us get started by putting up “wanted” posters for Mr. Tillerson in your hometown!”

The idea is a simple one: download our short one-page toolkit and print out a few copies of the “wanted” poster we have created for Rex Tillerson. Then, take some time over the next couple of weeks and put them up around town. It’s as easy as that and should be a lot of fun.”

OK…so let me get this straight….Greenpeace wants us to print out a bunch of flyers to get the word out? I mean seriously? Does it really make sense to have one of the  ”greenest” orgs condone printing out a bunch of wack flyers that won’t have any impact. I know I know they’re supposed to be looking “big picture”…but that is exactly my point. If the goal is to get the word out about this horrific CEO let’s get the word out. Any organization/non-profit, whatever it is, no matter what you are trying to do or push, should fear the same thing….being irrelevant. Once your message and how you deliver it become obsolete so does your mission. I think the most frustrating part is that they are almost there…the idea is like flirting with something that can have legs.  So let’s examine this thing and see how they could have done better.

First of all I do like the whole “wanted” theme. Its catchy, it makes sense, its provides a nice motif to work with. Where the mission goes astray is the delivery and the overall design of the campaign. You are telling people to put up flyers around their town? What good will that do? No one can share that info easily….you maybe get 5-10 seconds of the person’s time, if that, as they are passing the flyer…there is no incentive to take any action. Rather than using the 1945 approach to marketing they should have gone to where the conversation is…the internet. Why not push Greenpeace supporters to use the Wanted Poster as their profile picture on social networking sites. Why not use twitter to create a digital “America’s Most Wanted” of sorts. I would also create a micro-site that functions as both a petition and a billboard for the movement. People like to discover things….so give them stuff to discovery. On the micro-site I would include as many videos and links as I could that could that illustrate why he is on the “Most Wanted List”.  I would provide incentive for singing up and spreading the word.  Currently there is only a blurb about this on their Facebook wall with pretty much the same messaging as the email. It is paramount that GP engage the users on their level. Give the people something to talk about. Give them something to do besides print a bunch of paper flyers.

In today’s world causes are like little badges people where to help differentiate. Making the “Wanted” movement a part of the current vernacular would create evangelists out of people who never would have otherwise reach. For instance…remember when the Iran elections were going on last year? I can’t tell you how many people changed their profile pictures to reflect the green hue indicative of the opposition candidate. That created curiosity…”why is your profile picture green? Oh…that’s because I support democracy in Iran.”

Get the conversation started Greenpeace. You are falling behind. Call me…we can help.

“Let’s get conversions!” they cheer from the cliffs and huts of the village. We hear it everyday. How do we increase conversion rates? No matter the vertical or the offer the answer is simple. Provide value….be compelling. I converted myself on an offer this weekend so I thought it relevant to share. And perhaps bring you some value. First, remember that everyone is competing for eyeballs both online and offline….what the internet provides is interaction with the brand….eyeballs plus action so that to me is the goal. Let’s go through the steps of my recent conversion.

Step 1: I received the below email. Delivery time Friday 4:45pm…Subject Line: Happy Valentine’s Day from eMusic…the offer: Here is a gift for you. How curious and tempting right. I am fan of the “Unwrap it now” call to action as well. Visually the creative is decent. I have issue with the header navigation. I know the old “best practice” hand book has a chapter on this but in this case I say let the V Day offer stand alone. Its going out to existing users and its a conceptual event driven offer. Nav in the email is just not necessary in this case. But alas the offer was compelling so I clicked.

Step 2: I was routed to a landing page and was auto played a short Flash Video. The video was good I suppose. Not to intrusive but not that big of a WOW factor. It works though as it is an offer for existing users. The action isnt to forward this. So the video is short and the song is too which is nice. The end state of the video plugged the offer and below the vid there is a link explaining the gift….5 free downloads.

Step 3: I clicked the redem button and was on the home page ready to log in.  So now I am here….logged in with free stuff to use. I noticed something I liked on the home page (see below)….I read about the artist…then downloaded her whole album. The experience was so good I searched again and downloaded another album. I pay for 35 songs a month and used almost all of them in this one session.

So I interacted and had a brand positive experience in just three clicks.  There are a couple reasons I like this besides the fact that it brought value.  For these kinds of sites and services its important to remember that sometimes your users forget they are even a part of the community. I know I do sometimes…I have lost my downloads a few times because it just slips my mind that I have them waiting for me there. While it may seem like it doesn’t matter if I use my downloads or not as E-Music will make their money anyway I contend that it means everything. They need to show that people use their service so they can intern sign more artists and labels to get an even broader audience. So this offer is relevant, compelling, it brings value and encourages interaction. Good job E Music. Still a fan. Here’s a sample of what I found…pretty sweet…the drop at 0:49 seconds in is ridiculous. Enjoy

Last week I was invited to speak at Scholastic publishing in Soho. As i mentioned on twitter I kept a look out for one Mr. Potter but saw neither he nor Clifford roaming the halls. I was asked to speak for 20 minutes about optimizing landing pages. Wow. So many things to say so little time. I racked my brain trying to figure out a way to provide value to these people while still trying to come up with something new and relevant. What makes this a difficult topic is that Landing pages, and the things that make them successful, just like everything else on the internet change all the time depending on so many things.  How can I be educational to the education people? I set out on the usual research of sites and blogs that anyone else would…google, marketing sites, etc…I needed more. I needed something new. The more I read and discovered the more I realized that there is no answer. There were sites offering “Top 10 Landing Page Secrets” and the usual “Your Guide to Landing Pages”. No smoking gun thing that makes a landing page “optimized”.  For as many products as there are in the world there could be equal number of landing pages that work. There has to be a framework in which we can talk about all landing pages across all verticals. Then I considered this…..a constantly changing system never has answers….it is all theory. At the heart of it…optimizing a landing page is nothing but a guess. Thus was born Landing Page Theory. (Only pronounced properly with your tongue in your cheek…)

The 5 rules of Landing Page Theory

1. Landing Page Equilibrium (L) = The point at which a landing page achieves balance and is thus optimized against other systems
2. The right combination of variables (V) and constants (C) will equal (L) V +C = L
3. L can only be proven through testing various combinations of (V) and (C) using the scientific method
4. All choices should be made in consideration for the user
5. All if this is only theory: there are no rules if you convert

What is a CONSTANT?

1. A clear and concise goal
2. Your audience
3. Your entry points

What is a VARIABLE?

1. Clear call to action
2. Appropriate forms
3. Consistent imagery
4. Solid brand message
5. Good user experience
6. Copy in “F” shape pattern
7. Stickiness: Do I want to click out?
8. Testimonial
9. Product shot
10. There are a ton more…

After explaining my new Theory I took a look at some case studies to provide some concrete examples. I identified the constants and then we worked as a group to identify the variable and decide if they indeed equaled L. The below is a Pin Code campaign we did with Breitling Watches. What are some of the variables?

Do you have any landing page examples that we could examine in this context? A special thank you to Stephanie Miller and the DMC for including me in the panel.

For those that know me well they know of my Hawaiian roots. A deep appreciation lies not just with my heritage but for Bernice Pauahi Bishop the founder of The Kamehameha Schools; who if she had not lived I would not be the person I am today.  Every year Hawaiians around the globe celebrate her December 19th birthday and the below video will hopefully give you and understanding of why. In humble appreciation…Thank you Bernice Pauahi Bishop.