There has been much debate on the future of “print”. As technology progresses and information is made available quicker and quicker, print will indeed have to change or die. But also, we need to look at how we define “print”.

To us, print can be defined as any presentation of words or content that the user can take the time to personally engage with. So, therefore, print can be almost anywhere. It’s how it’s executed and presented that make the difference as to whether it will be successful in communicating a message. Or being compelling enough that people will take the time to read, or experience it’s content. Much like any endeavor, it’s the consumer experience that make a difference.

There is some amazing technology being developed that will indeed change how we view, and interact with, print. The goal is still the same, to create a user experience that is both rewarding and fulfilling for the consumer and financially feasible for the producer. Magazine and newspaper publishers have been dealing with this for years. Hell, anyone who produces any type of content that they want consumers to notice have been dealing with this for years. The methods of delivery are changing and we’d better be ready to change with it.

The goals are still the same.

1. Take content, information or some type of message and make it compelling enough that people want to interact with it, or “consume” it if you will.
2. Provide such a unique message or experience that when they “consume” it that it provides a value to them to the extent that they are willing to either take some type of action based on this message, or be willing to pay some amount to be able to continue to have that experience.
3. Be able to “own” this particular space, content or experience for the furtherance of your “brand”.

If these goals sound like the goals of almost any good communications or advertising plan, you are correct. It will be the way that we use these new tools that will make or break the success of these efforts.

The next two often overlooked parts of this equation are design and interface. You may have all the right elements and content, but if they are not presented in the right way to create the best user or consumer experience, there’s a good chance that it may fail.

This is not to say that that things need to be “hyper-designy” or overly pretty. A great example of this concept is the SONY Walkman and Apple’s iPod. The iPod was able to take over the world because it made all of its bells, whistles and music available to the average consumer in a seemingly simple way. It wasn’t over designed with graphics or features, nor was it lacking. The SONY Walkman is actually a brilliant piece of technology. It was designed to do all of the things that the iPod was plus even more things that consumers said they “wanted”. So why is the Walkman not even really mentioned in the music device “wars” anymore?

The Walkman was designed by brilliant engineers and functions as a brilliant engineer thinks and interacts. Your average consumer is not a brilliant engineer (myself included) and just wants to simply access our music, or other digital files or games and be able to use them in a very simple way. iPod was able to create a delivery of a product(s) in a very simple, approachable way. Its design is beautiful in it’s simplicity and the user experience and interface is beautifully simple.

In essence, a lot of what people now use their iPods and iPhones (and any other “smart” device) to access can, by the definition above, be defined as “print”. Read it again and see if you agree. Don’t try to define it in literal, tangible terms, but what it’s trying to accomplish.

So let’s re-examine “print”, how we use it, and how it becomes a valuable asset in the future. We still need great writers, designers, photographers, illustrators and content. Now, with the technology we have coming available we will be able to even further tailor the user experience with the interface design and creating a unique experience with our content. It can be beautiful, inspiring, relevant and valuable just as people in yesteryears defined “traditional print”.

This is a great example of how the “print” experience is evolving and some of the opportunities and possibilities that will be emerging any day now, and it’s beautiful.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Mag+ (video prototype footage only) from Bonnier on Vimeo.

This post was written by Tim Scott, founder and creative director of THEM!. THEM! is a creative company founded to find new ways to help companies create marketing efforts that get results and create opportunities, through any technology or media possible. Contact THEM! at www.THEMdidit.com or call 541 306 6723 for more information.

All this talk about Google Chrome OS. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But what does it really mean? What’s the thought behind it? Here’s a video that explains Google’s next step towards world domination.

If you are complete nerds like us, you can read more on Mashable, here.

The state of the “ADVERTISING” business.

Preview:

The Breakup:

The plot thickens:

Thought for the day:
Build relationships. Not impressions.

It’s time to reinvent how we do business.

Never in my 18 years of being in sales and marketing have I ever seen a market like we are currently in. I think that may be a good thing. Here are some observations and recommendations for how we do business and what will work today and in the future.

Business is all about relationships.

Now I know you can say that business has always been about relationships, however, in the past those “relationships” could be created with glitzy advertising campaigns and celebrity endorsements. Consumers were much quicker to accept what they were told by advertising and the media with little thought to the validity or cost of many of their claims.

Today consumers are so much more analytical and sensitive to marketing.  This completely influences the way we create and maintain a relationship with them. Our messages need to be compelling, transparent and honest. There is little to no tolerance for fluff or manipulation. You may get away with it once, but you’ll be hard pressed to get another chance.

Don’t mistake a message for communication.

When we were riding the wave of a healthy, growing economy, consumerism was at an all-time high. Companies were throwing out messages in every shape and media. It was a no-holds-barred competition for that miniscule moment when you could make any kind of impression on a consumer. Shock-based tactics were prevalent because there were so many messages out there that consumers just became numb to all of them. To overcome the numbness, marketing resorted to shocking people in an effort to be memorable. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t. Just because consumers got the message didn’t mean that they got what we were trying to communicate.

Consumers vs. Producers

In the early 2000′s we, as Americans, were the poster children for consumerism. We consumed (and still do in a lot of categories) a large part of what we and the rest of the world produced. We had the money and the access to anything and everything money could buy. And buy we did. Much of the global economy was supported by our blatant consumerism. This allowed many of the “producing” countries and their economies to grow and thrive. China, India and many other emerging markets became extremely powerful players in the global economy. But when the bubble burst in America beginning with the financial and housing crisis, it impacted the entire global market as the consumers slowed their consuming and the markets based on producing had nowhere to go with their products. Now that we’re consuming less, the competition for what we choose to consume is so intense it’s completely changed the game.

So what can we as business people do to market ourselves and our wares in this advertising-adverse economy?

1. Create an “Architecture of Participation”

I believe it was Tim O’Riley that coined this term. You can find his write-up on this here. But I would like to expand this definition somewhat to cover all aspects of your sales and marketing efforts.

Consumers have begun the change from being defined by consumption and now are being more closely defined by their participation. With less disposable income available to consume, people are becoming producers. Not necessarily of physical products, but of opinions, ideas and feedback. Thanks to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the many other “social media” networks, people are producing more than ever. Don’t be afraid of this participation. Sure, it will definitely change how sales and marketing traditionally works — it already has. But this participation is here to stay, even after the economic situation improves. This level of participation will allow truly open-minded business people to access information and feedback we never had before. And, in doing so, it will allow us to create an even better product or service. But, only if we allow our consumers to participate and, most definitely, only if we LISTEN.

If we start truly listening and implementing what we learn, we will build these much desired relationships with our customers — relationships that facilitate a true interaction with your product or brand. This, in turn, leads to happy customers and repeat business.

2. Realize that interactivity is not only on-line

True participation is not only an on-line experience. Even if you are amazon.com, eBay, or any other web-based business, the experience your customers have is not only on-line. It’s the entire experience from beginning to end.

Take, for example, Amazon. A customer goes to amazon.com and places an order. If the ordering and payment process is not simple and intuitive the “experience” of the Amazon brand will suffer. Continue on to the fulfillment process. If the item ordered arrives later than the customer expected in a tattered package, the perceived value of both the product, the service and the Amazon brand suffers. This is where having participation can become painful. Trust me, those consumers are going to participate in some serious conversations. Even if you as a company don’t facilitate the conversation, they will vocalize their opinions in one or many of the other avenues available. Even if they do have a negative experience, if you are willing to listen, communicate and make it right, you can create a life-long customer.

This thinking needs to expand into your personal customer interactions as well. Find ways to have your consumers interact personally with your people and product in the way it best benefits them. Allow them to have a voice — even when it’s an unhappy one. Again, if they don’t vocalize to you, they’ll vocalize to someone else. And that can hurt a lot more.

3. Balance your messages with unique ways of communicating

Advertising and sales are not a bad words. Improper tactics and messages are. To “advertise” is defined as “to promote or draw attention to”. People can’t interact with something they don’t know about. The true challenge lies in communicating with the right people with the right message at the right time in the right place. No one tactic or strategy is going to solve all of your marketing needs effectively. Work to develop a strategy, tactic and a message that is right for your audience and stay focused on it. Work with a solid, proven marketing partner who will be your eyes and ears into the best way to accomplish these goals. Work with them to develop these goals and hold them accountable for the results.

Sales and marketing is not rocket science, nor a walk in the park, nor does it have to be fantastically expensive to be effective. Smart thinking (strategy), the right message and medium (creativity), the right execution(s) (advertising, PR, social media, interactive, etc.) and the right participation by your customers will help you successfully reinvent how you do business.

Tim Scott
Executive Creative Director
THEM!

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Here is a really interesting video that is well worth 17 minutes of your time discussing consumerism, time and participation. We would love to hear you comments below.

With all of the “information” about Social Media running rampant out there we’ve decided to start an ongoing list of Social Media references and links that we’ve found useful. Feel free to send yours over!

General Social Media:

1. 10 Tools of the Social Media Swiss Army Knife
2. How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day
3. Build a social media plan that never sleeps
4. Top 8 Ways To Use Social Media

Twitter Resources:

1. A great introduction to Twitter
2. HUGE Twitter resource list!
3. How to Speak Twitter – a twitter glossary
4. How to Use Twitter as a Twool Marketing in 140 Characters or Less
5. What Can Twitter Do for You? More than you might imagine
6. 27 Twitter Applications Your Small Business Can Use Today
7. 4 ways companies use Twitter for business
8. Find and Follow Top Business Execs on Twitter
9. Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet
10. How to follow back everyone on Twitter without ruining your experience.

Blog Resources:

1. Why Is Your Business Afraid of Negative Blog Posts?
2. 10 ways to boost the value of your corporate blog
3. The Top 50 Blogs for Startups In 2009

Facebook Resources:

1. 5 Tips for Optimizing Your Brand’s Facebook Presence

Tools we like and use:

1. Tweetdeck
2. Yahoo! Sideline

We will continue updating and adding so check back often. If you find any dead or inactive links please let us know.

Fear seems to be the big ruler of large organizations right now. And understandably so. But fear is paralyzing and inhibitive. Exactly what we DON’T need right now. It’s a time of change and transition, but it’s also a time of growth and creativity.

Impersonal and disconnected just doesn’t work in this environment. People want to trust, want personal contact and definitely want a reason to believe. “Because I said so” isn’t acceptable any more.

Consider the strong trend of “social media”. People are looking for personal contact and a feeling of being personally connected. Granted, a lot of the “connections” are strictly virtual, but it’s still a direct connection with the outside world and information. Companies are slowly beginning to understand and several are doing new and innovative things with communications outlets like Twitter. Check out people like @zappos, @SouthwestAir, @JetBlue, @GMblogs and others. They are working to connect directly with their consumers. Some better than others.

One of my personal biggest frustrations when I was working as a creative director at the “big agencies” in New York City was the lack of connection and understanding of the business needs that were driving our assignments. We have so many tactics and medias available today I cringe at the number of dollars wasted simply because major decisions were made almost blindly simply based on gross tactical generalizations.

Now as a smaller agency, our goal is to truly get to know and understand our clients. Not just on the corporate laugh level, but to truly understand their challenges and their consumers and marketplace. That is the best way that we can effectively create a plan and execution that will work as effectively as possible with todays smaller budgets.

We strongly encourage our clients to give us a business challenge or a desired outcome rather than a request for a print ad or a “viral campaign”. This allows us to dig into the myriad of opportunities and medias to create a message that is as targeted and effective as possible. And last but not least, we strongly encourage our clients to be part of the process. The more we know and understand about you, your organization and your product or service, the better we can communicate that to your customers.

It doesn’t matter how big or small your company is, your consumers want to feel like you are vested in them and that you care about them and their business. We have been told time and time again that “it’s not personal, it’s business”. But business now is personal. What we do in business affects people in personal ways. And we should never lose sight of that.

This post was inspired by a post at harvardbusiness.org entitled “Why Small Companies Will Win In This Economy”.

“Social media” can be defined a lot of different ways. Does it have to be on-line? Nope. It’s simply a way of socializing with people. The “media” in this case is a simple 8.5″x11″ piece of paper. But it’s effective. So that’s the lesson in this short to us business folk. It doesn’t have to be fancy or elaborate to work. It simply has to have the right message at the right time and place.

This is a great little short film Directed by @RadicalMedia’s Patrick Hughes for the Schweppes Short Film Festival. It may bring a smile to your face. And that’s a good thing…

So the iPhone is the global hit of massive proportions right now. I, Tim the nerd, have fallen deep within it’s seductive qualities. As the saying goes “I am special and unique, just like everybody else” (who also owns an iPhone). I truly believe that the reasons that Apple has succeeded where so may others haven’t is because they have made the complex, simple. The confusing is (more) intuitive. What this takes away is a fundamental inhibitor of human progress, and that is FEAR. We no longer have to fear failing to be able to operate our fancy-schmancy digital devices. It (almost) makes sense now. We have reached the pinnacle. Well, not by a long shot.

As professional communicators (that’s what it boils down to what we (THEM!) do) we have to find ways to actually communicate with our client’s consumers. The old model was simple. Tell consumers how to act or what to buy and they often times would. Now, we have talked AT consumers so much, in so many different ways, that we have actually conditioned them to tune us out. And it’s our own damn fault.

As Ogilvy said years ago “The consumer is not an idiot. She’s your wife.” and in the context of today’s connectivity and access “your wife” is way more often than not, smarter and better educated than you can ever imagine. So now what?

Now, more than ever, we have to learn from smart designers like Apple and others. We have to make information and truly desirable and innovative products accessible and simple. The foundation of the product or service can be as complicated as need be, but the end result has to be functional and useful to your consumers. And not only that, we ALL have to be willing to listen and evolve our products or services as needs change. And believe you me, they are a changin’.

So why the heck am I talking about this? In this market, it is incredibly easy to become obsolete quicker than you can say Government Bailout. How do we side-step this 10,000 lb gorilla? That is the magic bean my friends.

So now I am going to post a completely inner-nerd inducing video. I am going to ask you to watch this video twice. Once to even begin to understand what the possibilities are in the near future for incredible interface and interaction design on so many different levels. Second, watch it again and think about the beauty of the thinking of this technology which is letting people interact with your product or service the way is suits them. The more we create business solutions for our customers that follow this simple frame of thought, the more loyal our client’s consumers and therefore our clients will be. And that makes everybody happy.