John Winsor

Perspective

It's all a matter of perspective.

The Power of Rumors

University of Wyoming professor Martin Bourguios is studying how rumors are started and spread. This interesting research could have some interesting applications in the world marketing.

The Year in Ideas

Yesterday, The New York Times Magazine published it's 5th Annual Year in Ideas issue. It's always my favoirte issue of the year featuring ideas from Accredited Bliss to Zombie Dogs. Check it out. It's sure to insire you.

The SPARK Update

Spark continues to garner lots of nice attention. This month it appears at number 4 on the 800 CEO Read bestseller list. The book also recieved a couple of nice reviews from Fast Company and several blogs, including Chroma.

Thanks to everyone for their continued support!

Synchronicity, Revisited

A couple of weeks ago I read an interesting article about the Millennium pedestrian bridge that crosses the Thames in London.

In 1996, the Financial Times held an international competition in conjunction with the London Borough of Southwark and the Royal Institute of British Architects to design a new footbridge crossing the Thames between Southwark and Blackfriars bridges using a cutting edge design. The bridge is the first pedestrian river crossing over the Thames in central London for more than a century.

Soon after its opening, on 10 June 2000, the new bridge began to see a larger than expected crowd crossing it daily.

Like all bridges, the Millennium Bridge, was designed to cope with some amount of movement. Yet the deck started to sway so severely that many pedestrians started to act like drunken sailors when crossing it. The swaying became so bad that it was renamed the 'The Wobbly Bridge'.

After an investigation, the engineers concluded that the problem was due to the way people walked in unison. It seems that the “synchronous lateral excitation” was due to the “chance correlation of footsteps when people walk in a crowd.”

This synchronicity “generated slight sideways movements of the bridge which made it more comfortable for people to walk in synchronization with the bridge movement.” In other words, once it started to sway people tried to counteract it, en masse, only making the problem worse.

This story reminded me that there are many wonderful examples of synchronicity in nature.

Earlier this year I posted about one of my favorite books, The Natural History of the Senses, by Diane Ackerman. In it, Ackerman talks about the fact that when humans enter REM sleep our bodies operate at a frequency of 8 to 13 hertz. Similarly, the earth’s natural rhythm is 10 hertz. We seek synchronicity, and organically, we find it.

Is this what happens with trends? As consumers, we see something in popular culture, like the iPod, we synchronize our language and thinking about the possibilities of such a product or idea, becoming in sync with others around it only causing its popularity to grow, fueling the trend.

So, if there is synchronicity happening that makes us all act similarly how can brands cope with this?

Many companies have actually become so divorced from the world around them in a way that doesn’t allow them to see the synchronicity of people’s thinking. They must find a way to reconnect with the world by creating a deeper dialogue with their customers in order to get in sync with a trend. Think about GMs recent problems.

Companies can participate in the synchronicity by going beyond the old model – of us and them, producer and consumer, company and customer – and co-create with their customers by developing a more organic, albeit more complicated model of the relationships that people inside a company have with people outside the company.

Concentrating on these relationships means thinking about the dynamics of any organic system of give and take, ebb and flow. A system based on dialogue.

If traditional branding is all about searing the name of the company into a consumer’s mind, then the willingness to co-create is all about slowing down enough to have an on-going, open dialogue with people. It is about a journey of learning rather than the accomplishment of putting out the next new product without the full participation of customers in the process.

Change the Geometry of Your Game

Mike Leach, pictured in the middle, football coach of the Texas Tech Red Raiders is shifting the paradigm of college football. He's doing it by redefining the geometry of the game, taking offense to some wild places.

Not many people have taken Leach seriously because he never played college football himself and is seen as an outsider. Likewise, it's assumed in games like football that the team with the most talent wins, yet Leach consistently wins big with players that no other college was interested in. To read the full story check out this New York Times article.

In business there are many examples of changing the geometry. Think of Google or eBay.

Can you take a fresh look at the way your brand engages with your customers and change the geometry of the relationship?

Developing a Story

John Moore’s post over at Brand Autopsy entitled, Capitalizing on Conversational Marketing reminded me that with the buzz about word of mouth marketing and the importance of storytelling there is a lack of discussion on what it takes to tell a good story.

I agree that we are in the twilight of a society based on data. In the coming years, brands and companies will not thrive on the basis of their data, but on the strength and meaning of their stories, creating products and services that evoke emotion.

Products will become less important than the stories they convey and the way those stories are interpreted and shared. It is a return of the ancient form of narrative. Companies need to have stories to tell – stories that inspire action. And companies must themselves embody those stories with congruency and authenticity.

When developing a story, there are some essential qualities any narrative must have:

Context – The story must be in the context of the audience’s experience. You want the audience to think about their own experiences and stories and be able to see themselves in the story.

Simplicity –Simplicity equals power. A story must be simple and to the point.

Interest – A boring story is just that. It will do nothing to inspire action or promote understanding. A story has to be interesting enough for the audience to register it, remember it, and tell it again.

Trust – The best stories are stories that are actually true. I don’t mean true in a scientific context, but true to the audience’s experience. It’s amazing the trust that is created when you feel the audience saying that they’ve been in the same situation. True stories evoke in an audience an attitude of “I can do it, too.”

Meaning – A story must get across a strong message that inspires the audience to rethink something. The story is the structure or framework that adds support to the deeper message being conveyed. It’s easy to get lost in the story itself and forget why you are telling it. Remember that a story is not just a way to illustrate the analysis. Rather, the story’s job is to convey meaning from the analysis and act as a conduit of understanding.

Connectedness – To be successful, the story must connect the audience with the inspiration you are trying to convey and to customers with whom the audience can empathize. It is vital to get the listeners to mentally place themselves in the shoes of the customers.

Magic – A great story often violates the listener’s expectations. There is a surprise. This gift is usually an action that has resulted in laying the groundwork for profound inspiration in the story. Remember to plant the seed of the idea of the center of the story and let them invent the missing elements.

Relevance – To be successful, a story must embody the inspiration in such a way that the audience will almost intuitively know what to do with it. If the listeners are given the opportunity to co-create the story, they will believe that it is their story and will be more likely to become champions of the inspiration you are trying to share.

Immediacy – Stories are efficient. In today’s ADD society it isn’t possible to detail all of the data to scientifically prove your point. A story helps people take the leap of faith necessary to be inspired to take action

Feeling All Bubbly

I really love The Bubble Project by Ji Lee in New York City. It's a great example of co-creativity in public spaces.

Lee explains in The Bubble Project Manifesto:

Our communal spaces are being overrun with ads. Train stations, streets, squares, buses, and subways now scream one message after another at us. Once considered “public,” these spaces are increasingly being seized by corporations to propagate their messages solely in the interest of profit. Armed with heavy budgets, their marketing tactics are becoming more aggressive and manipulative. We the public, are both target and victim of this media attack.

The Bubble Project is the counter attack.

Very Naomi Klienesque.

Whether you agree with Lee’s perspective or not, it’s important to know what’s happening at the fringes of art and media.

Thanks for the folks at Room 116 for pointing out the project.