Influential Marketing Blog

Olympics Newsflash: Social Media Isn't The Problem, YOU Are The Problem

It is just Day 5 of the "Social Olympics" and already social media has taken center stage in good and bad ways. For anyone who hasn't been as Olympics-crazy as me, over the past few days we have seen athletes thrown out of the Games for racist comments made on Twitter, Olympic level whining about tape delays from coverage in the US, people choosing to stay off social media in order to avoid spoilers, and indignation from social media believers about limiting social media usage by athletes in any way.

For all the complaints, though, here's a few facts to consider:

1. Over the next two weeks, NBC will broadcast more than 5000 hours of LIVE competition online and on multiple television channels.
2. Athletes are actually ENCOURAGED to use Twitter and social media to share their experience, as long as they don't promote brands or personal sponsors (which has led to a justifiable #wedemandchange uprising), but it certainly doesn't prevent them from sharing their excitement or real experience of the Games).
3. Prime time in the US is still the time when the majority of working people have time during the week to watch the Olympics (even if it happens to be on a time delay).

Despite this coverage and access - many people are complaining about the many ways they feel the Olympics are being "ruined" by marketing, or social media, or NBC. Sure, some of the complaints are valid.  But what if none of these things are the real problem?  What if the real problem is you?

Well, maybe not YOU specifically - but "socially savvy people" in general. Socially savvy people are used to sharing every thought and impulse in real time. They expect content online to be free and always available. Everything must be open source, or else it isn't worthy of respect.

Sound familiar? You know people like this, I am sure. So do I. The problem is - their oversharing sometimes ends up poisoning all of our lives. Their desire to turn every one of life's moments into a status update means they may be missing the very moments they focus on capturing. Their steady stream of updates clog our life feeds and keep us from connecting with our more important but less active friends. The real danger of social media is the people who abuse it. It is no wonder some of the most respected people in social media are openly calling for an end to the nastiness with a single day of positivity in social media on August 14th.

So as the Olympics continue, instead of turning to social media as a convenient place to vent about your disgust for why swimming finals are broadcast on a time delay - how about following Athlete twitter feeds to read about their experience of the Games?  Or what about spending your lunch hour watching a great Olympic table tennis match on a live stream? 

The point is, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the global spectacle of the Olympics without spoiling it with your social media outrage and oversharing.  With the US Presidential election just a few months around the corner, why not save your criticism for the political ads and campaigns?  At least they deserve it.

The Best And Worst Of London 2012 Olympic Marketing Roundup

NOTE - To see a full visual roundup of the best and worst marketing, visit my London 2012 Olympic Marketing - Best & Worst Pinterest Board.

As the world turn its attention to the Games in London today, I'll have to indulge my Olympic passion from afar this time around.  I've been a lover of the Olympics since I was in college in Atlanta during the games in 1996.  They were a big reason I moved to Australia in 1998 and I was in Beijing in 2008 helping manage the Lenovo Voices of the Olympic Games program where we had 100 Olympic athletes blogging their experience in a pre-Twitter world.  So yes, I'm an enthusiast.  

This time around, I am going to share my passion for Olympic marketing with a platform that I haven't yet used all that much - Pinterest.  As I spent the last week looking at some of the most interesting marketing efforts from around the world - I saw everything from P&G's emotional "best job in the world" video to British Airway's unexpected campaign to encourage Britons NOT to fly.  One of the best early stories, to me, was the #savethesecret campaign launched to encourage people not to share the details about the Opening Ceremonies so people will still be surprised in watching it - a worthy challenge that I accept (and so you won't find any spoilers in this blog post).

Throughout the Games, great marketing stories will continue to emerge ... and so I plan to collect and share them through my Pinterest board - London 2012 Olympic Marketing - Best & Worst.  Over the next three weeks, if you see any great marketing examples, I would love to see you share them there as well. In the meantime, let's all get ready for the international spectacle of the Olympics ... there really isn't anything else like it.

12 Big Trends Transforming The World Of Retail Right Now

Last week I had the chance to deliver a keynote presentation at a merchandising event put on for some of the largest retailers in the US by the trade association Shop.org.  I shared some trends built upon consumer behaviour and incorporating some startups that are getting a lot of attention right now.  I don't share many of my presentations as they are often custom created specifically for events that I participate in, but this is one of the few that I can open up to a public audience.  So below you can see the full presentation embedded from Slideshare (and you can visit my Facebook page to download the PDF).  I hope you enjoy it!

12 Big Trends Changing Retail Marketing Today from Rohit Bhargava

How Nelson Mandela Used Likeability To Succeed

July 18th isn't really a holiday all over the world, but perhaps it should be. It is the birthday of Nelson Mandela, and our team out of London is supporting an initiative to help this iconic South African leader get the recognition he deserves. So today, you can join people like Desmond Tutu, Eddie Izzard, and Jamie Oliver to make your own pledge for global good in the official pledge book.

Our team is also encouraging poeple worldwide to devote time (specifically 67 minutes in recognition of his 67 years of service) community service to pay tribute to the anti-aparthied icon. To help support the intiative (beyond taking the pledge), I thought I'd share an excerpt of Nelson Mandela from the Introduction of Likeonomics. When I first started to write a book about the power of likeability to inspire others, he was near the top of my list of people to write about. Once you read the story and see some of the wonderful work to support his recognition, I think you'll agree. He wasn't just a likeable and inspirational figure ... he truly changed the world around him.

NELSON MANDELA EXCERPT: LIKEONOMICS

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.
—Nelson Mandela

The first time I experienced the powerful influence of Nelson Mandela was from the front seat of a taxi cab riding down the streets of Jo’burg (as the locals call Johannesburg). Mandela’s picture was on billboards along the highway to the city even though he was no longer president of South Africa, and my driver was speaking about his influence and how he had inspired the nation. That story started nearly 20 years ago.

In 1993, tens of thousands of Afrikaners (white South Africans) were preparing for war. Three years earlier, a man named Nelson Mandela had been released after 27 years in prison. He was no hero to this group. They saw him as the founder of a terrorist organization who threatened their way of life and belonged in jail. They were ready to fight.

As reporter and biographer John Carlin wrote, that was the moment where Mandela began ‘‘the most unlikely exercise in political seduction ever undertaken.’’1 He invited the Afrikaners leaders over for tea and listened to their concerns. Then, he persuaded them to abandon their guns and violence. The battle never happened.

A year later, he was sworn in as president of South Africa and vowed to make reconciling the racial tension between whites and blacks his number-one priority. Somehow he had to overcome decades of hate and convince people ready to die for their causes to see one another as brothers. In one of his first acts as president,Mandela invited Francois Pienaar, the captain of the South Africa national rugby team (Springboks), to have tea with him. That afternoon he struck an alliance, asking Pienaar to help him turn rugby into a force for uniting all South Africans.

During the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Pienaars led the mostly white players of the Springbok team in singing an old song of black resistance, which was now the new national anthem, ‘‘Nkosi Sikelele Afrika’’ (‘‘God Bless Africa’’). It was a powerful demonstration that the players believed in having a united South Africa. Inspired, the team fought the odds and made it to the finals against New Zealand.

On June 24, 1995, minutes before the final match would start, Mandela went on the field in the middle of the stadium wearing his Springbok green shirt to wish Pienaar and the team good luck. The crowd, made up of mostly white South Africans, was stunned. For many years, that green shirt had been seen as a symbol of only white South Africa. For a black man to wear it was unheard of.

The crowd erupted in cheers of ‘‘Nel-son, Nel-son’’ and everyone across South Africa celebrated. Mandela would go on to lead the racial reconciliation both during his presidency, and then after as an ambassador to the world for South Africa. In 2004, the country was awarded the world’s largest stage to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup. It is now seen as a likely future Olympic destination, as well.

This story of South Africa’s triumph was chronicled by Carlin in his book Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. It was so powerful, it inspired the Academy Award–winning film Invictus by director Clint Eastwood.

Why People Believe in Likeability (and Why They Don’t)

The fate of South Africa is linked to the story of one man’s personal charm and likeability. This may seem like an extreme example. After all, not many people have the gift that Mandela has. Yet, his experience does explain the very fundamental role that likeability can take in inspiring belief and changing our world around us. People didn’t follow Mandela because of the ideas; they followed because of him. When he invited you over for tea and listened to your concerns, and then spoke, you couldn’t help trusting his vision.

Support the pledge here - http://www.mandeladaypledge.org/

Dollar Shave Club Offers The Cure For Overmarketing

My current razor has three blades, but I am sadly certain that at some point pretty soon that will seem laughably low. The razor blade wars have been around for years - but each year the battles continue with new "innovations." The Gillette Fusion Power razor, for example, now features an "onboard microchip" to help "regulate power." It's no wonder razor blades have been the butt of jokes for years now, but the problem generally has been that most guys just don't have a better or easier option.

Now there might be a solution - in a form of a new startup called the Dollar Shave Club.  Through a personality filled and fun video that has gone viral with over 5 million views over just 4 months (see below) , they introduce the idea of their new service and attempt to take on the BS-driven world of razor blade marketing with a big sense of humor, and an (apparently) better product and service as well. They start, as most great startups do, with a strong idea of their target audience and the problem they are solving:

1. Guys hate paying $20 or more for razor blades.
2. Guys think the overmarketing of razor blades is filled with BS.
3. Guys forget to buy razor blades all the time.
4. Guys like to laugh.

Based on these four simple facts, the Dollar Shave Club offers 3 razors, including their flagship Executive razor, which is described as "a personal assistant for your face" with a "shave is so buttery, it feels like you’re carving turns through a virgin Wyoming snowfall."

Entertaining writing aside, the site also starts with a video showing the personality of the company and founder, with a good dose of random humor in the form of a guy in a bear suit and a toddler shaving a guy's head while he reads (fittingly) The Lean Startup.



Put the pieces together and you have not only a great product idea to solve an actual need, but a brilliant example of just how powerful personality can be as a sales tool. I already ordered my new razor thanks solely to the power of the pitch ... and, of course, my secret ambition to one day have a personal assistant for my face.

The Problem With Curiosity

Curiosity isn't just for cats or cartoon monkeys. In fact, it may be one of the most powerful marketing forces that exists in the world today (and one I even wrote a guide for using several years ago).  Thanks to a combination of our natural human urges and what constitutes a "breaking story" in today's media environment - curiosity has been taking on a whole new significance lately.

Today, for example, the two LEADING media stories that people can't stop sharing, tweeting and talking about both peak our curiosity through their irresistable uselessness:

Pandas On A Slide:



San Diego Sets Off All Their Fireworks Simultaneously:



Both of these reminded me of a moment last year when I took a screen grab of the homepage of Yahoo. The lead story featured a headline of just three words: "Squirrel Dodges Lamborghini." At the time I tweeted about it, and dared people not to click the link. Few people were able to resist - just to see what the video would show them.

This drive to "see what happens" has always been a natural human behaviour. The ancient Roman thinker Cicero talked about curiosity as a "passion for learning" - and the noted Harvard psychologist Robert White in the 1960s wrote a groundbreaking paper about this human need to learn, calling it our "urge towards competence." For thousands of years, curiosity has been associated with learning and intellect. The best scientists were always curious about the world around them, for example. But curiosity means something else today.

Curiosity has shifted from a need to learn into a need for simulation. The phrase "for curiosity's sake" is just one example of how we think about curiosity today. In 2009 a veteran journalist named Charles P. Pierce wrote a brilliantly satirical book called "Idiot America: How Stupidity Became A virtue In The Land of the Free" all about the glorification of ignorance in our culture. 

Just wanting to "see what happens" has led to voyeuristic shows about misbehaving housewives, 450 pound "biggest losers" and anyone's silliest home videos memorializing their stupidity in exchange for cash payouts. The annual "tradition" for the 4th of July includes the idiotically American spectacle of a hot dog eating contest. No wonder we love the pandas. But there's a lesson in this as well. Curiosity will continue to have a hold on why people watch certain content and share it with others. In a world where there are more ways ot waste time than ever before, this new form of curiosity is likely here to stay.

The optimistic hope in this is that maybe over time we'll learn that "just seeing what happens" may actually become a legitimate form of learning as well. After all, you never know when you might need to dodge a Lamborghini for yourself ... 

"Somebody I Used To Know" & The Co-Created Future Of Musical Storytelling

The moment in 1981 when MTV officially launched its music channel by airing The Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star" was a big moment in the history of music. While it may not have been the first moment when videos were merged with music, it was certainly one of the most powerful. All of a sudden you could not only experience a song and how it made you feel, you could also SEE an interpretation of what the songwriter actually meant.

At first this shift worried many music fans. After all, if you watched a video interpretation of a song, how could you really have the chance to interpret the song for yourself? As social media has grown over the past ten years, we have reached a point where an artist's interpretation of a song is only one possible alternative that fans of their music experience.

Through remakes, covers and mashup-style remixes ... individual content creators are all adding their own colors to the experience of a song as it is today. Perhaps no song illustrates this more powerfully than the "long tail" of interpretation that has accompanied Gotye's #1 chart topping single "Somebody That I Used To Know."

Looking at the evolution of the many different explorations of that song may offer a hint into the new impact that co-creation will likely have on how any of us experience music today and into the near future. To see what I mean, check out this series of embedded YouTube videos that all feature different takes on Gotye's song ... in descending order of YouTube views. 

As I watched them, my experience of the song itself started to evolve ... as it has for many others that I have seen covers and new versions for.  As this type of creation becomes easier (and more talented people start to do it), I wonder how much will this impact the experience any one of us have with the music we listen to?  

Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra) -
Official video (262 Million+ Views)

Walk off the Earth - "Somebody I Used To Know" Cover
(122 Million+ Views)

GLEE - Full Performance of "Somebody That I Used To Know"
(16 Million+ Views)

The Key Of Awesome - WOTE Parody - Somebody That I Used To Know
(1.4 Million+ Views)

Mia Sings - "Somebody That I used to know!" - Gotye
(93,000+ Views)

10 Signs You May Have An Unhealthy Relationship With Social Media

There is a reason the word "pervasive" is often used right alongside social media. For many of us, the social channels we use to connect with others for personal or professional reasons are a big part of every day. But how much is too much? How do we know that we might be taking our enthusiasm for social media too far? Here's my slightly exaggerated (but mostly true) list of ten signs that you might just have an unhealthy relationship with social media in your life:

1. You receive an audible alert on your phone anytime anything happens. When your mobile device chimes, beeps or chirps anytime someone follows, retweets, shares or comments on something - you are actively sabotaging your own ability to concentrate on anything. 
2. Your business card says "guru" and you are NOT speaking about spirituality to large groups in India. I know what you're thinking, but I didn't write this one because I'm Indian ... :-) 
3. You use social media terms as verbs. If you have ever said out loud, "I need to instagram that," then this point is about you. The moment you start using social media terms to replace verbs, it's the beginning of the end. 
4. You believe there is nothing wrong with spllng wrds without vwls.  Sure, there's a 140 character limit, but it doesn't mean we need to commit "grammar gaffes" or unlearn everything we know about spelling, does it?
5. You answer questions with "you should read my blog post about that." That's like when someone asks you what a word means and you tell them to look it up. Unless you're a high school English teacher, just answer the damn question. 
6. You check your Klout score, um, ever. I don't think I really need an explanation for this one. 
7. You are a "mayor" of anything. We all love recognition, but I think deep down if you are disciplined enough to always check into a particular location and do everything that's required to be a "mayor" on Foursquare ... you already know you have a problem. 
8. You use the "like" button to make a statement. You don't always have to send flowers, but your friend just had their first baby ... the least you could do is take 3 seconds and write "congratulations" into a comment.
9. You use social media as a justification for being unreasonable.  Yes, there are people who demand a hotel upgrade or a discount because of their blog readership or Klout score.  You know who you are.
10. You freaked out for 70 minutes while Twitter went down. Yesterday when Twitter went down, how much of an impact did it have on your life?

If you see yourself in any of these signs above, the antidote is pretty simple ... switch off. Leave the phone off and close the laptop - go outside, talk to your kids and just find a moment to enjoy human interaction. After you go and tweet this blog post to all your folllowers, of course.

How To Save San Francisco With Puppies

In entrepreneurship courses around the world one of the first things that they teach you is to find a problem that your business can solve. We all have problems, so there should be plenty of inspiration. And no doubt, there are many successful businesses that start with this simple question in mind. But how often do they ask if the problems they are solving are big enough?

This weekend I read an article about a fascinating experiment in San Francisco to get panhandlers off the street.  The city is offering a stipend to panhandlers in exchange for them adopting puppies/dogs and providing a home for them. Not only do the dogs get homes and get off the streets (and avoiding the kennel or worse fates) ... but it also offers a unique chance for someone who is begging for money on the streets to reform their lives.

In the article, they feature a man who was formerly homeless and even after getting a home - was still struggling with isolation and depression. After getting a dog, he shared "I never go to bed by myself, and I never wake up by myself, it makes me walk with my head a little higher." He is a success story of the program.

Reading this, what problem do you think the program is solving? It's not panhandling. It's not homeless dogs in the city either. Instead, I think it is one of the world's most inventive ideas to reduce loneliness.

Some people end up living a certain way because they have lost hope in their lives. Their bigger problem is not financial, it is emotional.  They are lonely. Having a dog for companionship can help those people. Giving them $75 can help provide the incentive to make that happen. I don't know if giving dogs to panhandlers will ultimately get them off the street. And I know it is an easy idea to dismiss. But it is also a reminder: don't underestimate the unexpected things you can think of when you try to find a bigger problem to solve.

How To Interview Anyone: 5 Lessons From Amazing Interviewers

One of the most popular forms of content creation today is interviews ... but great interviews take a lot more than just coming up with a list of questions.  The sad fact is, not everyone who creates interviews to post online is actually good at doing them. So you might wonder, what do the people who ARE really good at it already know?

Over the last month I've done over 30 interviews as part of launching Likeonomics (that's more than one a day). Across that time, I've done everything from answering emailed questions to sitting in a broadcast TV studio. Apart from getting good at sharing soundbites, the last month has really given me an up close look at almost every style of interviewing you can imagine.

Through that time, there were a few interviews that really stood out - and five in particular which I have singled out and included in this article. Together they offer some valuable lessons for anyone who needs to produce and publish any kind of interview.

1. Prepare like a pro. (From: Anna Farmery)

Anna Farmery was an early influencer to get the book, and her Engaging Brand Podcast was one of the first interviews I did for the book. Within 30 seconds of starting the interview, it was clear that she had really read the book and thought about it (you would be amazed at how many interviewers don't). Her questions were fair, insightful and challenging in the right places.  Having her among the first helped prepare me for several of the interviews and questions I would get later during my media push for the book.  And the interview experience remains one of my favourites - all because she took the time to prepare like a pro.

2. Invent your own style. (From: Laura Fitton - aka "@pistachio")

A recognized celebrity on Twitter, Laura Fitton (@pistachio) is an early pioneer of the "tweet chat" interview format - where she hosts an hour long conversation on Twitter (aggregated together with the hashtag #beonfire) where guests interact in 140 character bursts with a real time audience asking questions and making comments. It's a jarring experience because of the breakneck speed of questions and comments, but pretty soon you get used to the stream and realize how amazing a conversation you can have when you're forced into sharing soundbites, and without every saying anything verbally to anyone.

3. Add value to the interview. (From: Katya Andreson)

When Katya Andreson decided to feature Likeonomics on her very popular nonprofit marketing blog, she asked me to respond to a very pointed question about how nonprofits could use the ideas in Likeonomics. I shared two responses for truths that nonprofits should share and she used both in her blog post. It would have been easy to stop there - but she didn't. Instead, she added her own take, a few lines of commentary and then a link to a wonderful video to demonstrate the points we both had made in the post. That additional effort made the piece her own, and engaged her fans - all because she took the high road to add value to an interview instead of taking the lazier "cut and paste" route.

4. Dig deeper to get the full picture. (From: David Siteman Garland)

Not many interviews challenge me to dig backwards into my past before I even imagined doing what I do now - and definitely no one got me to share the types of embarassing stories that David did ... but this is part of what has helped him to build an audience of more than 100,000 subscribers to his Rise To The Top "Non-boring" Podcast. He does an amazing job of establishing a rapport with his interviewee quickly and then asking deeper questions. Combined with a keen sense of what his audience of entrepreneurs really want to hear about, this makes his show and style a winner.

5. Work with the tools you have. (From: Sree Sreenivasan)

After participating in a seminar for about 75 students at the Columbia Journalism School, Sree Sreenivasan (Dean of Student Affairs) and I were walking towards the direction of his apartment in NY. During our walk, he pulled out his phone and started recording our talk. The "interview" features our unrehearsed conversation amidst the background sound of traffic (my rolling computer case along the sidewalk). Sree is an accomplished professor and journalist and teaches some of the most well known journalists in the world all about social media. If anyone knows about broadcast quality, it's him. Yet he's not afraid to just press the record button and walk down the street. It's the best proof that great interviews don't always require soundboards and mixers.

Do you produce your own content or have you had an interview with someone that really stood out?  Share your own tips about what makes a great interview or interviewer in a comment on this post!