It's no secret that I'm a big Beatles fan. I've been one since around 6 years old when I discovered Sgt Peppers in my parents record collection. It was magical stuff then and still is now. I was only 9 when John Lennon passed away but I still recall it clearly. It was my first real experience with death. Any earlier deaths in my life, my dad's dad for instance, happened when I was younger and seemed abstract. Lennon's death was strangely real to me since I had connected so strongly with his music at an early age.
I've done my best to pass this love along to my kids and so far it's happening. They love Yellow Submarine and many of the more psychedelic songs from the middle years. Psychedelic music is really just kid's music if you think about it. They ask me questions like "which ones are dead again Daddy?". I tell them stories about each Beatle, what songs they wrote, instruments they played, things they said... I'm proud that my oldest daughter Ramona, 10, can now pick out the Beatles pretty consistently whenever she hears them. I recently set up a turntable in her room and gave her the Blue and Red albums. I feel it is my duty to counterbalance the obligatory Justin Bieber infatuation that strikes all modern pre-teen girls. I was slightly horrified to see Bieber posters in her room recently right next to a vintage Elvis pin up I had given her. Elvis is one of her other classic faves. When I was in college I became obsessed with John Lennon's solo catalog one summer while working in a record store. In particular his first two solo records- Plastic Ono Band and Imagine really impacted me. There may not be a more honest record in existence than Plastic Ono Band. It's full of rough edges. Musical open heart surgery. I distinctly recall spending a week really mourning the loss of Lennon. It hit me hard for some reason, the thought that I could never have the chance to meet this person, that he was permanently gone from the earth, his unique muse was no longer with us. The scope of that loss seemed insurmountable at the time. What use was it trying to make music when you can't even get close to what he achieved? Thankfully that thought passed after a few weeks. With today being the 30th anniversary of his death I have to wonder how his impact will grow or fade in years to come. So far he seems to have only become more relevant. Maybe the world that creates a John Lennon has passed us by and we are living in time where the cultural soil cannot grow great artists. I hope not. But I do know that no-one has come close to filling his shoes these 30 years since he passed.Thinking About Site Content, Wishfully
Wishful thinking can invade a project or relationship early on. I blame high school romances, the ones you thought would last forever, where you could only see the good in the other person and not the obvious to everyone else issues that were heading down the track. In my experience with building websites wishful thinking almost always clusters around content.
We enter every client relationship thinking that content wrangling couldn't possibly be as bad as last time. It almost always is.This content monster has two heads. The first head is the client's. The client thinks they can write, they do it all the time- right?, so they commit early on to writing the site copy. They make this commitment, usually, without any idea of how they are going to fit it into their already busy schedule. They make this commitment because they want to save money. I get it. But what they don't realize is that the project will almost definitely be delayed while they struggle to find time to fit copywriting into their schedule. Deadlines will pass and the project loses momentum. That first blush of excitement we both felt at the kick off meeting has now completely withered. We are now deflated and completely bummed out. Where has the love gone? The second head is us, the agency. We are letting this happen, it is really entirely our fault. We know it's going to happen. It happens almost every time, dammit, and why haven't we figured out how to solve this problem? The reason is that we want to meet the client's budget and content is the first, and usually only, thing that the client can reasonable take on as their own. Also, we are being lazy, afraid to have that hard conversation- "in our experience clients can't write Web copy". We don't want to lose that good feeling we all have about working together. This is where the wishful thinking comes in. We tell ourselves- hey, they know their business so it just makes sense for them to write their content. But it still ends up being a trainwreck. We are not controlling the process. The client doesn't know how to build websites, we do, but we are being led when needing to lead. In dealing with this issue routinely after having built 100+ websites the last 5 years I've finally had enough.
Here's the solution we are going to implement. Communication, Creation and Control.
Client Communication- no more wishful thinking at the beginning of the relationship. We will set expectations during our initial conversations and maintain that throughout the project- "we welcome your involvement in creating content but we won't wait on it or expect it to be Web friendly, so expect us to have billable hours on content creation and optimization". Content Creation- we are in charge of site content, not the client. The client will have a window of time to get us whatever content they have but when that window closes our copywriter will work with those assets to create Web friendly site copy. From that our designers will create any needed graphics assets to go next to that page copy. All of this will be governed by a....
Content Control- a shared Google Spreadsheet with nice color coding to show what content is due, when it's due, who is responsible, etc. We will share this with the client during their content window. If they want to create their own site copy, awesome, we look forward to working with it as long as it's delivered on time. But we will still review, rewrite and optimize for the Web. In the end this is really about creating and controlling the total client experience. The new website experience should be like a trip down the Tunnel Of Love not a trip to the dentist.
Coding vs Copywriting
A recent post in Fast Company addresses the terror traditional ad agencies are feeling right now. They on the verge of extinction. One line really caught my attention "coding is now prized over copywriting".
That's completely true, just look at what coders get paid versus copywriters. But I would argue that there is a coming sea change already underway and the tables could turn again.
Coding is all about creating reusable solutions. Build it once and use it again and again. It's why companies like Google, Groupon and Exact Target are growing like weeds. Their product is almost infinitely scalable. But consider the destination.
Eventually the code will get so good it may put many coders out of work. It may get so good that anyone can build a website or app without any programming knowledge. We are already seeing this happen on a small scale with free to cheap Web solutions like Wordpress. When it happens, and I believe it will, then advertising agencies can stop worrying about the platform and technology challenges and do what they do best- communicate.
Right now many traditional ad agencies are paralyzed, afraid to enter the Social Media waters or even log into a Content Management System to update site content. But that is changing as well. They are going through a rude awakening and learning to survive- the fastest way to learn.
When code is no longer the obstacle then communication is king. Brand experience and messaging return to the top of the value pile. This is where traditional ad agencies excel. They just need to hang on long enough, while getting up to speed, and they may find themselves surprisingly relevant in the years to come.
Passion, Talent and Experience
I think this is the order in terms of desirability:
Passion- it can fill almost any void, even weak ability and lack of experience. It is mountain moving stuff and should be noted and rewarded.
Talent- leverages passion and experience. This is mostly genetic but requires developing.
Experience- belief driven knowledge. Seeing (experiencing) is believing.
The Problem(s) with Groupon
Daily deals are the current darlings of the Web. Groupon, the leading daily dealer, is looking at a valuation of $3-4 Billion in a possible acquisition by Yahoo. I think that would be a bad investment. Groupon is certainly doing well now but I see some problems on the horizon, or already here, that could make the company vulnerable.
1. It's too easy to do. The software isn't hard to do and there are already many competitors popping up locally and nationally. Remember MySpace? All a competitor needs to do is be Facebook to Groupon's MySpace. Also remember that TiVo saw its market share destroyed by DVRs provided by cable/satellite companies. There is no reason Facebook, Foursquare and many others can't play in this space. 2. It's a bad deal for businesses. Although I expect Groupon to start bowing to competitive pressure in this area, they usually take a 50% share of the Groupon offering. So if I'm offering you a $100 gift certificate for $50 and the Groupon takes half I'm left with $25. Is a $75 loss worth acquiring a new customer?3. Cannibalism. Once Groupon does the rounds on all the local businesses what happens then? Well they start back around. So now companies have an increased risk of cannibalizing their own customers. Essentially giving their existing buyers a huge discount on services or goods they would have paid for anyway.
4. User Fatigue. I'm not saying people are going to get tired of saving money but they will get tired of receiving emails they don't want. Why won't they want the emails? Since Groupon will be forced by businesses to be more competitive with other daily dealers that will mean the coupons will not be as good (smaller discounts) which will lead to users tuning out. I realize that as their list grows they only need a small percentage opting in for each Groupon but I would argue that they will see declining returns as their lists top out (there are only so many people in each city). 5. Customer Service. This is perhaps the biggest complaint with Groupon. Since there are often hundred to thousands of people getting a Groupon it creates a real customer service issue. What's a business to do? Staff up for the tsunami and then have an HR problem downsizing when it passes? Not staff up and then have disgruntled customers who have a bad experience, tell everyone about it and never come back? In Groupon's defense they have the opportunity to head off many of these current and potential problems. They also have the cash to do it. It will be interesting to see if they can turn into a sustainable, real company or be remembered as an interesting Web trend that couldn't make the turn.