It’s All About the Hoopla, Part 1

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John Winsor: Flipped: How Bottom-Up Co-Creation is Replacing Top-Down Innovation
Alex Bogusky and John Winsor: Baked In: Creating Products and Businesses That Market Themselves
John Winsor: SPARK: Be More Innovative Through Co-Creation
John Winsor: Beyond the Brand : Why Engaging the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business

January 02, 2007

It’s All About the Hoopla, Part 1

A couple of weeks ago Alex Bogusky sent over a copy of Crispin, Porter + Bogusky’s new book, Hoopla. I hate to say it, but I’ve grown weary of many marketing books. I know, as a business and marketing author myself, that might be hard to believe but I find so many books boring, rehashing the same old stuff from an ego-centric point-of-view.

So, it was with that lens that I opened Hoopla. What I found was something totally different. Instead of another branding/advertising book, it was a cultural exploration into a journey of storytelling through the eyes of CP+B. And, what a wonderful journey it is!

CP+B’s philosophy is relationship-centric, focusing on building a dynamic relationship between brands and people, instead of being media-centric, like so many agencies today. This relationship-centricity is what makes Hoopla magical.

To get the story behind the book I thought I’d ask Alex a couple of questions.

John: I loved the book. Great job! It made me feel hopeful about the power of brands and their ability to promote positive change in their relationships with people. Today, many agencies and clients have a hard time keeping up with the radical media changes happening and the empowered customers of today. They seem to be driven by fear. Yet, Hoopla, CP+B and your clients are infused with fearlessness, always finding a new and bold way to deepen a relationship with people. How do you stay so fearless?

Alex: Wow, I’m not sure we’re quite fearless but fear is something many of us identified a long time ago as having a negative impact on creativity. Being afraid is okay and it can help. But fear is different. Fear paralyzes people and organizations. As a company we try to protect our people from the fear that seems so prevalent in corporate life. Seems like fear often passes itself off as wisdom. The idea being that to avoid risk makes you a hero to your bosses and your company. But fact is there is no reward without risk. They are two sides of the same coin. So to minimize risk is to minimize reward. That’s not to say that any risk can bring reward. That’s obviously not the case. But when the potential gain is huge and the risk is low, that’s a time for action. Not the paralysis that fear brings.

And in adverting the concept of what kind of work is risky is completely upside down. The biggest risk when you’re spending millions of dollars is to not be seen or noticed at all. Yet somehow all that invisible advertising that gets created is seen as “safe.” I may be crazy, but in my mind, to flush 50 million dollars down the toilet without anybody noticing is the only real risk.

Posted at 02:21 PM in Advertising, Branding, Inspiration | Permalink

Tags: Advertising, Branding, Crispin, Hoopla, Porter + Bogusky

Comments

I will be reading this!! On booking now!!
Alex and all the miami crew made magical relationship between brands & human beings. Thanks for the clue!

Posted by: DArio | February 12, 2007 at 02:25 PM

brendan,I'm not sure where you get the about-face comment I've alwyas advocated models that recognize the competing interests of blogger free expression and blogger authenticity. That's why I try to educate critics who don't want bloggers to own their own voice/blog/audience and I try to guide bloggers about disclosure policies (including Toni here).For a debate centered around ethics it still amazes me how many half-truths get thrown around.You say: PPP is based on the concept that people don't immediately know it's advertising it's abusing the trust built up between a blogger and his or her readers The truth is: PPP is based on the concept that bloggers own their blogs and their relationship with their readers better than any 3rd party could. They have to make the right calls on honesty and disclosure, with advice from us/others and PPP's rating system to encourage quality and discourage abuse. It's also based on the concept that bloggers look for new writing ideas every single day, and the PPP platform offers a rich, diverse cache of ideas that also happen to cover the cost of their time/effort/hosting.I researched the platform for 3+ months BEFORE I put my money where my research was. I started with a number of the misconceptions I'm hearing across the blogosphere. My research included speaking with many bloggers, advertisers and audiences. I spent time/effort to understand the typical user and the outliers. I also spent time understanding management's commitment to do good. This is 100X the time/effort spent by drive-by analysts polluting the blogosphere with wrong information.To your comment of never even being remotely accepted , I'd share that PayPerPost is already accepted by mainsteram bloggers and doing great things for thousands of honest, ethical, hardworking people across the world. It provides a viable revenue model to a CGM industry that isn't sustainable without one. It also encourages discipline/quality by bloggers and brings new voices/experiences/knowledge to this medium. So long as the platform continues to empower the masses and dilute the earning/influence power of the elites, it will face resistance from the elites. I understand that, but the future belongs to the masses

Posted by: Anis | September 27, 2012 at 11:06 PM