Project Rethink

Beet.tv talks about a new phenomena in web-based advertising networks, “they are going vertical”.

Advertising networks are fragmenting into specialized verticals like travel ad networks, women’s ad networks and gay ad networks, according to Frank Addante, serial entrepreneur and CEO of advertising technology company The Rubicon Project. The fragmentation is mimicking the way television stations split off into cable channels…

Permission Marketing

In 1999, renowned author and marketing “guru” Seth Godin writes about this concept in his book, “Permission Marketing”. Godin describes a change in marketing where consumers give marketers permission to read their advertisements.  We see it every day in targeted ads like Google Ad-words and ad-banners (some ad- banners).  And now, as Beet.tv mentioned, the industry itself is changing.

Innovate and be creative

Since the first radio programs of the early 1920′s, small commercial advertisements were placed in the middle of broadcasts to help pay for the program; a program that was, by all practical measures, distributed to the public for free.  Consumers understood that these commercials paid for their program, and learned to accept the occasional interruption.  Fast-forward 80-90 years and we have television programs and streaming multimedia.  Almost 100 years later and broadcasted programs still use an interrupt-based model.

Are we doing all we can?  Maybe it’s time we rethought a few things.

I recently moved.  As a result my daily routine changed.

I have to take a new train to work, I have to shop at a new grocery store, I had to find a new place to get a cup of coffee.

I hate moving, it is always a hassle. There was nothing wrong with the place I lived before; it had everything I needed, and it was convenient. 

I knew that if I wanted to make things better than satisfactory it would require a lot of hard work. Nothing was broken, but I still moved.  

We have a tendency to fall into routines and learn to accept little problems.  

Now that everything is moved, my daily routine has a few new additions.  Before I was about 2 miles from my gym, now I am about 2 blocks.  The result?  I have gone to the gym more times in the last 3 weeks than in the last 3 months.

We need to shake things up a bit.  It’s harder in the business world, especially corporate.  These kinds of change typically only come with a change in management, a reorg, or a merger.  

Like moving, it’s hard work; but in the end sometimes you just have to get up and do it. Talking about it isn’t enough.

Before I moved I could have told myself, “I am going to go to the gym 5 times a week”–in fact, I often did.  But it wasn’t until I was proactive about the change, it wasn’t until I moved, that I was able to actually reach my goal.

Don’t expect change, don’t expect innovation, unless you are willing to shake things up and do things a little different.  Maybe a new vendor? Maybe an unproven business model or technology?

Change is risky, but without change we cannot innovate. Innovation is by definition something different; it requires a change. If you want to redefine your market, you have to make a change; you have to take a risk.

I was on my way home tonight and decided to take the subway from Harvard Square. As you can see from these pictures EA games went all out on the marketing of their latest game, Spore.  In these 4 pictures there are more than 55 unique ads.  What is interesting, only a handful actually mention the product.

This is a very good case “shotgun marketing”; but it also shows how an advertisement can make the consumer stop and wonder, “What is all this about?”  You can’t ignore them, there are too many.  But you find yourself reading all of them, trying to figure out what you are being sold.

At very least, it caught my attention.

The take away, catch the attention of your consumers. It could be in an ad, or in your final product. Innovative products get noticed.

*I apologize for the photos. I was in a hurry and didn’t have a camera, so I had to snap them from my iPhone.  The iPhone does well in some light conditions; unfortunately, subway is not one of them.

1. What is this product trying to do? Am I trying to change the world, or is this just something to pay the bills?
2. Is this product new, or an iteration of a pervious product?
3. What determines the success or failure?  At what point am I done; at what point do I give up.

Most people will ask themselves at least one of these questions at the start of a new venture.  But it is important that we ask all three.  A combination of these answers can reveal a lot about your business model.

You might have one approach if you are “trying to change the world” and your product is new; however, if your product is just an iterative idea, things should change.  New products often take longer to make a serious impact. You cannot expect a new product to catch on overnight, so your failure point should change as well.

Define your product, design your product, deliver.

Be creative.

Seth Godin brings up a great point on patience and points out that often the people who stick it out are the ones who succeed.

…the strategy still takes forever. The strategy is the hard part, not the tactics.

Seth Godin

I came across this earlier in the week as I was walking home from work through downtown Boston. Very nice timing on IKEA’s part, since about 100k students are moving to Boston this weekend to start up the next semester.

The Lesson:

Innovative products, as well as good marketing, make you go home and tell your friends what you just saw.

How are you getting the word out about your business?