Meet Tim Goggin.  He's a single 32-year old entrepreneur who is (if you believe his pitch) the "most interesting  man in San Diego." He's also pretty frustrated with the tried-and-true dating scene and thinks social media may be good for more than just a poke.

A couple of months ago, Tim created a mock-infomercial and posted it to YouTube, in hopes of attracting the woman of his dreams to a site where she might claim her "free date." Now, I'm not all that interested in single guys in San Diego but I am interested in some of the creative, low cost ways individuals--and by association companies--can use social media and new marketing techniques to accomplish their objectives.

This is classic content marketing (not to mention micromarketing) and it will be interesting to see if it delivers. As I write this, Tim's video has amassed more than 30,000 YouTube views and has landed Tim a handful of mainstream media hits.

But is it bringing the girls? Maybe. As Tim told me in an email late last month, "Results have been pretty good. I've been on a few dates. Still haven't met the right woman but I expect to soon."

I've embedded the video below for any interested ladies living in the San Diego area (or even just visiting for the PRSA conference this week.) Check it out.

As for everyone else, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Is this savvy social marketing or just a desperate ploy (note that according to Tim he is absolutely serious about this)?  How might you use a similar approach to entice potential customers to get to know your brand?

You're probably not a blogging n00b but you probably know someone who is

Target Marketing magazine will be hosting an hour long conversation (part presentation, part Q&A) featuring Compendium Blogware CEO Chris Baggott and me sharing everything we know about how companies can get started with corporate blogging and what this means for their SEO programs. Look for practical tips about how to get one of the most basic components of a social media plan going right.

So register today or pass the link along to anyone you think might be interested.

50 and going strong. An update on our sponsor, Queensland Tourism and "The audience conference".

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show and thank YOU for all your purchases as part of their friends and family program. Just in time for the holidays, you can take advantage of some pretty sweet deals on Netbooks, Printers and more. See below for information on how you can become part of HP's Friends 'n Family Plan.

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

Not the real president and not in real life.

Regular readers know that I have a bit of a mancrush on J.C., who has the social media chops so many brand managers can only dream of. His last print novel, Personal Effects, was a participatory, multimedia tour de force (learn more) and with 7th Son he does it again.

Now, for those of you who haven't been poking around the social media space for the past few years I should mention that although today marks the first day 7th Son is available (as they say) everywhere books are sold, the story has already been told through social media.

A couple of years ago, frustrated by his inability to find a publisher for his work, J.C. released the novel chapter-by-chapter in podcast form. The series went on to become one of the (if not the) most popular audio podcast novels and amassed J.C. a nice-sized army of fans. And then, well, one thing led to another and now the man has a book deal with St. Maarten's Press. Solid...

But that doesn't mean he's kissing his social media friends goodbye. You can (and should) buy the book. But you can also download the first 10 chapters as a free PDF (available for download across a network of social media and sci-fi blogs) or read the entire book for free on Boing Boing, where it's being serialized chapter-by-chapter. Eyes too tired from staring at spreadsheets all day? He's also offering it all as a 10-episode audio serial that should appeal to both audiobook fans and his original podcast audience.

If you want to see a great example of social marketing done right (by someone who isn't a trained marketer, no less) check out the site. There are a ton of other goodies -- from free prequel content to a killer loyalty points program for anyone who helps evangelize and promote the book.

Disclosure: I am not a member of the points program but J.C. did send me a free copy of the book (no, I haven't read it yet, but I plan to as soon as possible.) I also recently interviewed J.C. for my book (which is certain to be less interesting than his, although I hope it will be marketed at least half as well.)

Now go and get your clone on...

If you are going to try and give something away for free, you have to follow through. Bait and switch freemiums will fail if for no other reason than the bloggers wont link to you anymore.

In this episode, I call out Ragan Communications (as one of many companies who do this) insofar that they provide their content for free for a limited time and then gate it only for premium subscribers. My point is that bloggers will stop linking to publishers who do this....as the link is a dead end.

Spread the word:

• Tell Mark Ragan, your friends, clients and co-workers
• Tweet or RT: New JJTV: Bait and Switch Freemiums in the magazine or newspaper business are doomed to fail - http://bit.ly/baitswitch
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You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
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Unless you've been living under a rock (not that there's anything wrong with that), you've probably heard about The Audience Conference, taking place in NYC on Friday, November 6th at the Hudson Theater.

Some of the speakers include: Dan Farber of CBS News, Mike Arrington of Techcrunch, Jason Calacanis of Mahalo, Brian Clark of Copyblogger, Ethan Kaplan of Warner Bros. Records, Loren Feldman of 1938 Media, Web 2.0 antichrist Andrew Keen and of course.....me!

What makes this conference different from all the others....is simply put: this conference is not about "us", but rather "them" and by "them", I'm referring to our consumers, customer, viewers, listeners and readers or put differently, the reason why we're even in business in the first place.

Here's conference founder, Loren Feldman (and my JJTV producer/partner) talking about the event:

Interested yet? Well if you are, let me sweeten the deal....if you register to attend Audience, use promo code, "jaffe" and you'll save $50 on your registration fee.

Also, we get to hang out a bit if you're so inclined.

One more thing...I have a a few speaker comps to give away and so if you're really intent on not paying for this conference, leave me a comment on this blog post and tell me why you'd like to attend and who knows, I might throw a free pass your way (don't drop it)

How did you spend your Sunday night? I spent it recording an episode of The Beancast (and also watched some fine baseball....GO YANKEES!!!)

Besides host, Bob Knorpp, I also shared the stage with:

• Edwart Boches, Chief Creative and Social Officer at Mullen
• Ben Kunz, Director of Strategic Planning at Mediaassociates
• James P. Othmer, Author of The Futurist and Adland

Topics covered included:

• The future of direct marketing (and other short stories)
• Creativity in Social media (and other short stories)
• Media placement versus messaging impact
• More screens doesn't mean more ads
• Hulu today; gone tomorrow

As I have been doing of late, I'm releasing episodes featuring yours truly on the "Jaffe Juice - The New Marketing Podcast" feed. Makes sense imo.

Give it a listen...it was pretty tasty.

Direct download here

iTunes subscription here

 
Greg Verdino, our Chief Strategy Officer, reminded me of a certain birthday today: crayon's. The little company I founded 3 year's ago is a walking and talking toddler.

No more terrible 2's, although I think we were well behaved (reasonably) during this whole period.

I wanted to personally thank the box of crayonistas (Greg, Jane, Gary, Amadeo, Kate) for everything and all that they do.

Of course I also want to thank our clients for your continued support and belief - in particular, Panasonic, Kraft Foods, The Coca-Cola Company and ooVoo.

It's also been great to have several new projects out in the ether-net, in particular Panasonic's LiHD Insider and Coca-Cola's Expedition 206 (nice write up in Mediapost here)

So that's about it. Back to work now.

Photo credit: Photolovedeb

That wasn't meant to be a trick question, but rest assured the answer isn't five dollars.

Here's the scoop. I drive a Nissan Altima and I've been reasonably happy with it. It's neither the best car I've ever owned nor the worst, but I'm not a car guy so if it gets me from point A to point B safely without costing me an arm and a leg in gas money I'm satisfied. The Altima more than fits the bill.

I don't mind telling you that the lease runs me about $315 per month and I'm pretty diligent about paying right on time, almost always by check through the good ol' U.S. mail. This month though, I lost track of time and when I woke up this morning realized that I hadn't yet mailed the payment that is due today.

Luckily, Nissan offers an online payment option -- so I logged onto their site and authorized an electronic deduction from my checking account. No worries, but here's where the $5 comes into play.

Nissan, for whatever reason, charges customers an additional $5 for online payments (more if you prefer to charge it to a credit card.) Now, don't get me wrong -- $5 isn't a ton of money and, for all I know, other auto manufacturers levy similar "convenience changes" for online payments. But I pay plenty of bills electronically and none of my other creditors ding me for choosing my preferred method. Some -- Peapod springs to mind -- even offer discounts for customers that choose direct debit over other forms of payment.

Why? Because (and I'm pretty sure I'm right about this) even taking into account any fees charged by the third party payment processing vendor, it has to be less expensive (not to mention simpler and more reliable) to accept an electronic transfer than it is to print, stamp and send an invoice then receive, open, log and deposit a physical check.

So if it's better for their customers and ostensibly better for their company, why does Nissan charge $5 for an electronic payment? If I told you, I'd have to kill you. OK, the truth is I can't tell you because I have no idea. I suspect that someone (I'm guessing some dude or dudette in the finance department) figured that the incremental service charge would for the most part flow directly to the bottom line. In terms of pure dollars and cents, the decision seems like a smart one.

But in terms of perception and sense, I'm not so sure. Like I said, I'm a pretty happy Nissan driver but on this fine Fall morning I'm pretty annoyed with Nissan as a company. Even a minor inconvenience (in the form, ironically, of a convenience charge) takes its toll on how I feel about the brand itself and my experience as a customer. So much so that I'd not consider trading in and trading up to another Nissan when the time comes? Maybe. I'm not sure. But if that were to happen, wouldn't the lifetime cost to the company (in the form of lost opportunity and lost business) outweigh the near term $5 windfall?

Perhaps this is a case of accidental blame (should I be railing against the payment processing company?) but that almost doesn't matter. Despite my generally acceptable experience with my car, my perception of the Nissan brand takes a hit over this one trivial thing. And of course, when I tweet or blog about my frustration I potentially influence how others perceive the brand as well.

And so, a seemingly simple accounting decision ladders up into a potentially thorny sales and marketing challenge.

But enough about Nissan...

If we view this through a wide angle lens, the truth is that most of us work for companies that do things (no matter how small) that might look like good ideas when viewed up close, but turn out to be slippery slopes with plenty of downside when seen from a distance.  I've written about this before but it's worth repeating... cuz in the race to bump up this quarter's numbers so many businesses don't stop to take in the long term view.

A fiver for your thoughts. Chime in.

CBS launches viewing rooms online. CNN streams live online and via an iPhone App. It's not the screen size that matters. Content want to be free. Size of the screen is not a determination of a viewing or a consumption quality experience.

Spread the word:

• Tell Phil Keoghan, your friends, clients and co-workers
• Tweet or RT: New JJTV: The future of TV is a shared and distributed experience - http://bit.ly/1z9APA
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You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
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Over the past few months, we've had the pleasure of working with Adam Brown and the folks over at The Coca-Cola Company on a pretty special program called "Expedition 206."

The premise? Bold, lofty, ambitious and truly global: Coca-Cola does business in over 200 countries (and I stand corrected, but no other brand in the world can make that same claim), so why not bring this to life in a truly unique way that authentically dials into the spirit of Coca-Cola and its brand anthem, "Open Happiness."

On January 1st, 2010, 3 Coca-Cola Ambassadors will visit 206 countries over the next 365 calendar days, covering 150,000+ miles in the process. Their mission? To seek out, discover and celebrate the epitome of "happiness" as it presents itself across different people, places and cultures.

Their trip will also "conveniently" coincide with the following headline events: the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Canada, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa, and the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China.

Coca-Cola Expedition 206 - Project Introduction Video from Expedition 206 on Vimeo.

The program itself is decidedly "social". In fact, crayon's role thus far has been to advise and guide the program on all things "social media" i.e. any and all facets of the journey that foster connections and communication between peers, participants, hosts, visitors and the brand itself. It is a mash-up in the sense that you'll see a litany of platforms, tools and vehicles used to activate the program - from twitter to facebook; from crowdsourcing to consumer generated content; from meet-ups to blogging, podcasting and "vlogging".

As of this week, 9 finalists were shortlisted and divided into 3 teams of 3 prospective ambassadors. Now it's up to the public; their fans and community; and you (if you're so inclined) to vote for the elite 3. The finalists are as diverse as the countries they'll be visiting. Here's the list:

• Dave Zwolenski, 27, an amateur film producer from Sydney, Australia
• Josephine Rosetzsky, 27, from Copenhagen, Denmark
• Sam Li, 21, born in Shanghai, China and now a student in Vancouver, Canada
• Antonio Santiago, 24, a university student from Mexico City, Mexico
• Kelly Ferris, 22, a university student in Brussels, Belgium
• Tony Martin, 29, who grew up in the U.S. and now teaches kindergarten in Munich, Germany
• Greer Cornish, 26, a digital media producer from Sydney, Australia
• Brendan Madden, 31, living in Beijing, China and originally from the U.S.
• Erin Guler, 28, whose parents are from Turkey and is currently a writer in Toronto, Canada

It's been a blast so far to work on this program. It's the kind of commitment-based marketing (a year of your life no less!) that flies in the face of fleeting 30-second spots and I for one, can't wait to see what 2010 holds in store for the eventual Ambassadors, to follow their exploits and share in their experiences.

I know I sound like an old man when I say this, but I only wish I was younger and able to participate myself in this once in a lifetime adventure.

Do check it out, share it with your networks and community, cast a vote or two for your favorites and continue to follow this journey as it unfolds...

• On Twitter
• On Facebook
• The Expedition hub

Additional links/information:

• Press release here
• SMPR here
• Disclosure reminder: The Coca-Cola Company is a crayon client

No longer are we going to be slaves or victims to the 6 o'clock News. The total amount of time spent consuming paid media is decreasing. Why? Because people are going to be spending more time creating their own content.

Spread the word:

• Tell Ruprecht Murdoch, your friends, clients and co-workers
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You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

 This is just flat-out smart and cool.

The Institute for the Future teamed up with Sun Microsytems and Boing Boing to host The Digital Open, a tech expo for teens under the age of 17. Last week they announced a series of winning projects, one of which caught my eye -- not because it made use of amazing, forward-looking technology, but because it ostensibly uses no technology at all...

Actually, that's not quite true. Let me explain.

The project, developed by a 17-year-old girl named Alexis McAdams, is called "DiorActive" and essentially takes the big world  issues -- political, social, cultural, economic, environmental, etc -- that we all hear about (in the abstract) through the constant barrage of information available at our fingertips every day and brings them to life in a tactical, experiential way at a human scale. How? By portraying them live in the real, physical world, reenactment style or interactive diorama style.

You can learn more about the project and its inspiration in Alexis's own words  (video):

So of course technology plays a role -- the real world experiences are informed by all of the online and media information available to DiorActive "builders" as they research the issues they'll bring to life. But the idea of using technology simply as a conduit to bridge a world-scale issue that we hear about to a human-scale physical experience that hammers the issue home in a meaningful, personal way is brilliant. And I think that it also speaks to an interesting blur between the digital, virtual and physical and provides a firm reminder that even for a generation that was "born digital," real world connections matter most of all.

As marketers, we intuitively (if not through hard and fast data) understand that online activities ranging from traditional digital advertising to web-based research and social media word-of-mouth translate into real world behaviors. As social computing evolves and becomes increasingly mobile -- and increasingly blurs the distinction between online connections and real world friendships -- the distinction between the digital and physical worlds will become less, well, distinct. And as we geek out over shiny objects that tap technology to enhance the physical world, it's good to remember that it flows the other way too -- that real world experiences can, do and will absolutely serve to enhance the digital (think about even the humble tweetup...)

I love the way Alexis's DiorActive project reminds old people like me, "hey, while you guys talk about where this might all be going, some of us are already there..."

I'd love to hear your thoughts. What do you think?

This is just a quick jumble of recent and new items that may be of interest (to me, if not to you.)

• Blog World & New Media Expo: I'm fresh back from Las Vegas where, as I noted last week, I presented at Blog World. Home improvement blogger Tony Saucier attended my session and wrote a nice summary of my presentation. I believe a video of my speech will surface at some point, but in the meantime Tony captured the gist of it.

• Time Off in Las Vegas: If you were at Blog World and we didn't see one another, that's probably because I didn't spend much time at the conference. What was I doing? No - not getting married... Check out my photostream to find out.

• Now More Famous in Lawrence, MA: While I was on the road, I heard from a cousin-of-a-friend who is currently a student at Emerson College in Massachusetts (the cousin, not the friend.) She is taking a social media class and needed to profile a blogger. So apparently I was that blogger. Check out the write-up on her blog. Wanna know what's most interesting about it? She wrote the post before I had the chance to respond to some specific questions she sent my way, so she was working off nothing more than my blog itself. And she managed to get a pretty good sense of who I am, what I'm interested in, how I think and even how to pitch me properly. Why is this interesting? Well, that's more than most PR reps who actually pitch me bother to do. So riddle me this: if Dana Evans can learn so much about me by simply spending some time with my blog, why do so many so-called social media pros get it wrong? Someone offer this girl a job (or at least an internship.)

• Because I'm a Fashion Icon: My buddy and ace media man Darren Herman has booked me to speak alongside Sir Ian Schafer from Deep Focus, and Media Kitchen president Barry Lowenthal at a Fashion 2.0 Meet Up in NYC next week. We'll be talking about the future of media and showing off our latest couture duds. The event goes down on the evening of October 27th, and although the RSVP list full you can throw your name on the waiting list if you'll be in the city and are interested in grabbing a seat if one opens up.

• Panasonic LiHD Insider voting begins: And last but not least, the Living in HD Insider competition I blogged about at the beginning of September has entered its final phase -- with the ten finalists going up for a public vote that will crown the winning Insider. Votes must be in by October 23rd, so I hope you'll take some time to check it out and cast your vote. I think we have an interesting batch of social media content creators in the running, so I'm excited to see what happens. (If you're a regular reader, you already know that Panasonic is a crayon client. If you're a first time visitor, now you know too...)

Hat tip to Nigel Corbett who sent me confirmation that the Queensland Tourism account was in fact not successfully "defended" by Sapient Nitro.

In JJTV #45, I criticised Queensland Tourism's decision to make Sapient Nitro defend this account...thinking it was unnecessary and wasteful, especially with an evitable result. After all, this program won every single award under the sun and more importantly, delivered global reach and an incredible (even unprecedented) amount of free publicity and earned media etc.

Boy was I wrong.

There is no justice.

The Wiggles get social media. We could learn a lot from them. Well done Sam, Murray, Jeff, Anthony, Wags, Dorothy, Captain Feathersword and of course, Henry the Octopus.

Spread the word:

• Tell Russel Crowe (again), your friends, clients and co-workers
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You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
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Tomorrow morning I hop a plane to Las Vegas where, on Saturday afternoon, I'll be speaking at Blog World & New Media Expo. In my session -- From Skeptic to Advocate: Making the Business Case for Social Media -- I'll take a practical look at a variety of different ways to get a reluctant client or boss to say "yes" to social media. No theory here -- the entire presentation is based on personal observations and real approaches that I've used to get potential clients over the hump and on the road to social media greatness.

From Skeptic to Advocate is a "Lightning Round" presentation and the format is kinda unique: I'll present solo for 30 minutes in a room and then move to a table on the Exhibit Hall floor for an interactive "Ask the Expert" Q&A session with anyone who wants to pick my brain (presumably about my presentation topic, but I'll be happy to discuss pretty much anything related to social media, marketing or haberdashery.)

The details, for those of you interested in attending:

Lightning Round Presentation:
Saturday, October 17, 2009
12:45 - 1:15 pm
Room 222

Ask the Expert Roundtable Q&A:
Following the presentation
2:00 - 2:30 pm
Look for the assigned table on the LVCC Exhibit Hall floor

As I generally do before speaking at a conference, I thought I'd preview my slides right here. You'll note that they're pretty bare bones -- an intro, a few provocative statements, some iconic images, and that's about it. The real meat is in the voice over and -- more importantly -- I hope we'll spend most of the 30 minutes allotted for presentation having a discussion about the topic instead.

Although I'll be in Vegas for several days, I will only be at Blog World for my speaking slot -- I'm happy to catch up with anyone who is interested in meeting during that time, but don't expect to see me walking the trade show floor or raging at the parties.  So if you'd like to say hey you'll want to catch my session. This isn't a ploy to fill the room (although I've got nothing against full rooms) -- I'm just mixing business and pleasure and plan to use the rest of the trip for a li'l bit o' r&r.

My new Adweek column is up, titled "Accidental Blame." It's a phrase I coined to refer to a growing phenomenon where consumers (like me) will assign some kind of public-facing "blame" on a brand or company, for a reason (generally innocent, but not always) that is not necessarily valid or accurate.

Brands - now more than ever - need to "show up" and address these issues before they become part of their "permanent records"

Give it a read and let me know your thoughts...

A couple of weeks ago I drove back to Westport, Conn., from a client meeting in Tarrytown, N.Y. In order to avoid the dreaded I-95 rush-hour traffic, I took the Merritt Parkway. En route I called my COO to chat about a few work-related issues and for the next 35 minutes, until I reached the Route 7 connector, I had seven dropped calls.

So much for hands-free driving.

I was fuming and when I got home (no texting and driving for me), I tweeted the following: "AT&T you are awesome - 7 dropped calls on the ride from Tarrytown to Westport. Sheesh." To which I get the following response from @glemak: "If that was via the merritt happens for all cellular networks -- its a vortex."
The Merritt is a nightmare when it comes to cell reception, so what's the problem with this picture? Why am I not satisfied and, more importantly, why should AT&T be concerned?

For starters, I hate AT&T with a passion. I'm one of their millions of "loyal" customers who resignedly gives them business because all carriers suck and because I have an unhealthy lurve for the iPhone. Secondly, I'm an emotional beast. You know -- it's the single biggest reason why advertising has survived this long: Emotions! And when it comes to emotions, feelings trump logic and facts. Thirdly, as marketing lore explains, perception is reality. I know I'm going to have one or two dropped calls on the Merritt -- perhaps more. But seven? Come on.

None of this bodes well for a calm, cool and collected dissection of the events, and the commensurate blame.

Perhaps if I had a better relationship with AT&T, I'd be more forgiving. Perhaps if I was with Sprint, Verizon or T-Mobile, I would have had 12 dropped calls. I'll never know because no one reached out to me to compare service coverage on the Merritt on a provider-by-provider basis.

Can you see where this is going?

According to new research from Penn State, a full 20 percent of all tweets mention brands by name. My AT&T comment was perhaps throwaway to most, but it leaves a mark. I have almost 14,000 followers and should any of them "retweet" me, the number of potential viewers increases exponentially. More importantly, tweets are not as fleeting as we might think. They're being crawled, spidered and indexed by Google, and are even considered now to be binding evidence in court.

Some companies (perhaps even AT&T) are monitoring their tweets, together with other social media-related mentions. This column, however, is not about why companies should be monitoring what their consumers say about them. Nor is it about the importance of responding and engaging in meaningful dialogue.

It's about accidental blame.

Accidental blame has nothing to do with technology, digital or social media. Think of accidental blame as a visceral reaction or gut allegation more likely than not unfounded in fact. And it's going to kill marketers if they don't know how to respond and react to it.

It's the modern day equivalent of walking into the corner of a dining room table and cussing out the table when the real culprit is the owner of the errant hip. Only now the entire "room" is filled with about 1,000,000 of your closest strangers...

Among the myriad consumer conversations that occur every single day -- whether face-to-face, via e-mail or social networks -- there's going to be a disproportionate amount of speculation, creative or editorial license, embellishment and, oftentimes, just plain inaccuracies. Now more than ever it's critical to dispel these threads before they fester and before they become part of the "permanent record," a.k.a. the Long Tail of Reputation.

Whether it's a bank being blamed for the current economic meltdown or an airline being blamed for a weather-related delay, there's no shame in addressing the issue at hand head-on and showing a bit of humanity -- even vulnerability -- in the process. Empathy, genuine concern and an earnest attempt to "set the record straight" goes a long way. And there's no harm in asking for some kind of acknowledgement in the form of a revision or update to the original blog post, a clarifying tweet or refresh of a wall, status update or profile. Just be sure to use the same vehicle that was originally used and speak to the same audience.

You're probably familiar with the game of broken telephone. Today the same thing is happening with brands on a regular basis and, more often than not, this has the potential to wreak havoc on reputation management and even crisis communications. That's the bad news. The good news is marketers have the power to nip this in the bud at the earliest possible moment in time. But in order to do so they'll need to be present, engaged and pragmatic. Their role is not to scold, lecture consumers on why they're wrong or to be defensive, but to authentically, politely and carefully clear their names (or at the very minimum, shift the monkey to somebody else's back).

And by the way, next time you want an uninterrupted conversation driving from New York to Connecticut, avoid the Merritt.

And AT&T.

Oops, I did it again.

The best job in the world just went under review. Come on people (and that includes the government of Australia) and get some sense, already. Stop the madness and an unnecessary waste of time, money and resources.

Spread the word:

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You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

A good old fashioned rant, with the following takeway: "Advertising is going to become the noose that hangs us if we cannot deliver against our promises" AKA next time, "pick up the damn phone. " #AMEXFAIL #AmericanExpressFail

Spread the word:

• Tell Kenneth I. Chenault, your friends, clients and co-workers
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As you may or may not know, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just came out with an update to their "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

It's the first time they've updated these guides since 1980.

This move was seen coming for a while now and most people have focused on the implications of this update on the blogging/social media world, not to mention the impact it will have on "sponsored conversations" or what we'd call "influencer outreach".

Ultimately the entire guidelines have one thing in common: disclosure. And not just a throwaway disclaimer, but one that actually makes sense, is authentic and transparent.

Most people have also COMPLETELY missed the real news - that which concerns detached celebrities living in LaLaLand and the delusional executives that call Madison Avenue their home.

Arguably the people LEAST affected by this are the third group, the disheveled basement-dwelling "face for radio" bloggers.

In part 1, I'll focus on the body blow this should - hopefully - deliver to the advertising community:

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

From Viagra to Herbalife or any other diet-related product; from headache remedies to the cigarettes that help you get that supermodel on the French Riviera, you're all on notice. Quite frankly, the entire Pharma/DTC industry might need some of those Excedrin Migraine tabs right about now.

Hopefully this means a LOT more disclosure than "ask your doctor" and "see our ad in Gourmet magazine" (aw crap, it just closed down) or the fast-talking, low-tone disclaimers at the end of the tiptoe through the tulips euphemisms.

Hopefully this will also end up covering those 30-second spots which feature "screen simulated" "disclaimers" that basically say we're completely fabricating the stuff we purport this product to actually be able to do...

...but I digress.

The way I see it, this is a profoundly positive step in the right direction. No more duping consumers with the "exceptions" in the blind hope that they can be the norm.

My BFF, the FTC also expands on suspect "research":

Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

Quit playing games with my heart FTC. Why can't we be together, forever? Not only do we now need to fess up to the biases associated with suspect research, but we need to make sure the research is accurate as well? What is this world coming to????!!!!!

Another huge implication in terms of understanding the background, motivations and context associated with claims. Pretty sure the CPG vertical is paying attention now.

I urge you to do your civic duty and report any advertisers contravening these elementary disclosures. Send them directly to me and I'll make sure I pass them on to my friends at the FTC.

All in all, I'm stoked. Part 2 will focus on the poor underworked, overpaid celebrity; desperately trying to find their place in a sun now dominated by reality stars and average schmucks like you and me. Tear. 

While nothing could have been further from Carse's mind than media and marketing (he tends to focus on stuff of a, erm, higher order), I found that he could have just as easily been writing about the differences between old media vs new, old marketing vs new. And of course the differences between the scarce-choice-abundant-attention world in which mass marketing held sway and the infinite-choice-scarce-attention world in which microMARKETING makes a whole lot more sense. In fact, I liked it so much I worked it into the book.

OK Verdino (blah blah blah), so what's the quote? Funny you ask, good reader. I slapped together a quick graphic suitable for framing (or at least sharing with your fake online friends):

If you like it (or can't read it cuz the type in the embedded image is too tiny for your laptop-bleary eyes), you can download the original from (ahem) Flickr.

I'm your biggest fan, I'll follow you until you love me. Was this written about Facebook? Irrespective, this episode is about dealing with the "press" and specifically focusing on Dave Letterman's current kerfuffle with extortion, infidelity, crisis communications and ratings.

PS Dave, call me.   

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Where does the time go? I'll be damned if I know...

Today is October 1st and, as I write this, it isn't even the morning of the 1st. It's already prime time (heh, remember prime time? It's when people used to tune into whatever programming the networks were showing, before the days of what-you-want-when-and-where-you-want-it.)

And you know what October means? My editor at McGraw-Hill is expecting to see the manuscript for my book before the month is out. Well, not so much is as was. Dudes and dudettes, let me tell you -- writing a book is hard work. Harder still when you're trying to balance it with a super busy day job and even a teeny tiny bit of a personal life. Hint hint: this is also why you haven't seen too many posts on this blog over the course of the past month.

So if the title of this post and my lame attempt at foreshadowing in the previous paragraph weren't enough to tip you off, I'm way behind schedule and won't make my original October deadline. Thanks to a super cooperative team at McGraw and an assist from my agent, I've bought myself another couple of months. I'll be working through the end of the year, delivering the manuscript piece-by-piece leading up to New Year's Eve. In return, I'm aiming to make it badder (in a good way) and better (also in a good way.)

We're still looking at a summer 2010 release date. Pray for me. Oh. And don't forget to join the microMARKETING mailing list for occasional updates, on-sale info and more.

I'm going on record. The Palm Pre will fail. And by fail I don't necessarily mean "wiped off the face of the earth," but certainly relative to the hype and investment, not to mention being the alleged "iPhone Killer".

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show and thank YOU for all your purchases as part of their friends and family program. Don't worry, you can still take advantage of some pretty sweet deals on Netbooks, Printers and more. See below for information on how you can become part of HP's Friends 'n Family Plan.

If you're a seller, then you know all about the black hole of marketing or media buying. If you're a buyer, then you're a Klingon. Why can't we all just get along?

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show and thank YOU for all your purchases as part of their friends and family program. Don't worry, you can still take advantage of some pretty sweet deals on Netbooks, Printers and more. See below for information on how you can become part of HP's Friends 'n Family Plan.

The viral smash of Jill Peterson and Kevin Heinz' wedding march (25 MM views and counting) has very interesting implications for both music and marketing.

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You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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I've now settled in to a comfortable monthly recurring guest role on "The Beancast", which is BY FAR the industry's marketing podcast with the best momentum right now.

In this episode, I joined host Bob Knorpp with panelists Bill Green (MTLB), Kristi Faulkner (Womenkind) and Ad Age's Jonah Bloom to discuss:

• Google's announcement of Fast Flip and its entry into the ad naetwork biz, plus how a rogue ad took over the New York Times main page.
• Why women don't like social ads (another lame link-baiting study only focused on Facebook and Twitter)
• The UK's entry in product placement
• When the crowd steals the client (Unilever fires their agency in favor of CGC)
• The launch of GaryVee's Vaynermedia

Direct download here (if you're subscribed to Jaffe Juice - the New Marketing Podcast, you'll get this automatically)

iTunes subscription here

.

As many of you know, crayon has been working with Panasonic for some time now on an initiative called "Living in HD."

The premise is simple: High Definition changes everything! And if you have an HD TV you'll testify to this. In fact, if you watched the finale of America's Got Talent last night in High Definition, you'll have especially loved the confetti at the end showering the winner of the show, chicken catcher Kevin Skinner!

Panasonic's vision for Living in High Definition is not solely about technology. In fact it's the human element that really brings this technology offering to life. So much so that they built a community called Living in HD or LiHD for short and supercharged this community with a collection of families that were given a suite of HD products to demonstrate first hand the transformative power of HD.

Anyone is invited and eligible to join the LiHD community to connect with other HD enthusiasts and exchange tools, trick, tips and tutorials with one another. If you haven't done so, feel free to follow this link. 

However, the purpose of this post is to talk specifically to a very special subset of this group, the "content creators" AKA Bloggers, Video bloggers, Photographers, Podcasters. Pretty much anyone that reads this blog if you think about it.

So put "Living in HD" together with "Content Creators" and what do you get? Enter LiHD Insiders!

We're looking for our third "LiHD insider" to join Steve Garfield and Stacy Debroff. You may recall that Steve and Stacy attended CES as Panasonic's guests in January. 

And if you become our third LiHD Insider, you'll win a very special content-creator suite, including:

• Panasonic 50" Plasma TV - TH-50PZ850U
• Panasonic Digital Camera - DMC-GH1
• Panasonic Digital Camera - DMC-ZS3
• Panasonic Camcorder - HDC-TM20S
• Panasonic Laptop - CF-F8
• Blu-Ray HiTB - SC-BT300

You'll also get a Lumix G1 camera to give away to your community as an incentive to join LiHD

Here are the details in more depth:

Who is eligible to become a LiHD Insider?

Any content creator who - by joining - agrees to upload unique content (seen only on the LiHD community) at least twice a month, participates in the forums and is a part of LiHD special events (live webinars and podcasts) once a quarter. As an LiHD Insider, your opinions and experiences will also help shape future generations of HD products.

A LiHD Insider will also get the opportunity to see new technology before it hits the stores and spend some time with Greg Harper, our LiHD Answerman.

Program Dates
The contest phase started Monday August 31th and ends on Friday October 9th.

Judging will be done in two phases. From October 12 to October 15th, the LiHD Insider committee will narrow down the applicants to a pool of 10 finalists. These finalists will then be presented to the community for voting from October 19th to October 23rd, with a winner being declared on or about October 28th.

The Details:
Any entrant to the LiHD Insider Contest must already be a member in good standing of LiHD, which means they have joined and completely filled out their profile. 

Entering for a chance to become an LiHD Insider is easy!

1. Go to http://www.livinginhd.com/lihdinsider
2. Fill out the registration form
3. Upload a video answering the following questions

• Why do you believe you should win this customized suite?
• How would this suite allow you to do something you currently cannot do? How would it make you better?
• How would you get your community to join and be involved in LivinginHD.com?
• Tag your entry with “LiHDInsider”

If you still have questions, take a look at Steve's video:

I'll warn you right now, this is a rant. And like all (good?) rants, it's kinda one-sided. So feel free to disagree. Feel free to prove me wrong... that's what comments are for. :-)

Cholesterol-and-sodium mecca T.G.I. Friday's found themselves in the frying pan (if not the fire) this week for their "Woody" campaign - and I've chosen the word campaign deliberately. If you're not familiar with the program, Friday's is offering free burgers if their spokes-character Woody gets half a million fans on Facebook. They're pitching the offer on their site, in their TV spots and with Facebook ads. Must have seemed like a good idea (to someone) but now bloggers are asking, so what? And what's next?

Clearly, Friday's took a page out of Starbucks' (face)book after the coffee giant grew the largest Fan community by offering members free pastries. Spike Jones of Brains on Fire calls efforts like these "social media bribery" and rightly points out that they have more in common with old school churn-and-burn promotional tactics than proper commitments to building meaningful, mutually beneficial, long term relationships between a brand and it's customers.

Oy.

In my presentations, I often talk about "marketing 0.2 in a 2.0 world" -- taking the same old things that seem not to work so well anymore on television, in print and (yes) even in traditional digital, force-fitting them into social, and praying they'll work. Marketing 0.2 comes in many flavors (beef and coffee are just two) but seem to share one common ingredient -- lack of depth.

Friday's hits 500,000 fans (they've already surpassed the mark although as I write this, the television ads driving traffic to the Fan Page are still running and the promotion is still highlighted on the chain's home page), Starbucks gives away a zillion scones -- and then what?

In a very different example (one we discussed on this week's BeanCast) AT&T unveiled Seth the AT&T Blogger Guy in a YouTube video that aimed to explain why their service for iPhone owners has been pretty shoddy, and assure customers that they're listening and on the case. If it weren't bad enough that this video smacked of too-little-too-late (why now rather than, say, during SXSW Interactive when thousands of social media influencers were directly impacted by AT&T's poor coverage; why in a single YouTube video rather than a more robust social program or, heaven forbid, a TV spot), it quickly came to light that Seth the AT&T Blogger Guy was neither an AT&T employee (he works for their PR agency) nor an actual blogger (apparently, he does blogger outreach.)

Blargh.

But you don't need to cherry pick dramatic examples. You see the same shallow, misguided and misinformed attempts at social media marketing everywhere you look -- in the post-and-pray viral videos, the brand Twitter accounts that do nothing more than broadcast brand messages (despite the fact that there are plenty of good examples to follow from other, smarter brands that tap into Twitter for everything from conversation to customer support), in the blogs, social network pages, podcasts and Apps that start out hot and cool off faster than microwaved leftovers.

Are the agencies to blame? Consider this: MarketingProfs community manager Beth Harte (herself a respected marketing blogger and prominent member of the Twitter community) emailed Universal McCann to request a copy of their Wave 4 social media study. Her email was deleted without even being opened. Does it matter how well you've researched the social space if your actions prove you don't understand that social is at its core about peer-to-peer relationships? Actually, this isn't just an example of bad social marketing; it's bad old school relationship marketing -- why squander the permission someone has granted by offering up her email address. Shouldn't UM know better?

Are the clients to blame? I mean -- they greenlight these programs, don't they? They're quick to pressure their agencies for the next big thing, and even quicker to pull support and funding when the latest social media tactic doesn't scale right away or deliver immediate, measurable ROI.

Looking at examples like these, it seems we really haven't come very far from the olden days of fake blogs and trying-too-hard-to-be-cool MySpace profiles. Have we?

Trying the tools, driving the traffic, collecting the friends, fans or followers aren't what matters. What matters is the "what's next." And what matters for those of us who earn our living doing social media marketing is what happens next for us too -- when we stop being so shallow with gimmicks, giveaways and poorly conceived short term tactics, and actually dig deep into long-term, commitment-based relationship building.

Yes, I know there are plenty of good examples that I haven't mentioned. Once again, feel free to yell at me in the comments. I rant because I love... and (for now) rant over...

My buddy, Mitch Joel, just wrote a book. It's called Six Pixels of Separation and it's the prelude to his blog and podcast. In this special episode, we talk about the book, his rationale and motivations behind writing it, the central themes behind the book and of course, Jay Leno. So give it a listen, buy the book (of course) and send in your audio comments to me on +1 206 203-3255 or follow me on Twitter (why? I have no idea)

Direct download here

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Bob Greenberg (the R/GA Bob) just wrote a piece on Adweek which talks about how a "holistic social media program can help keep a brand alive."

This paragraph caught my eye, which really captures the gist of his article:

Right now, many brands are leveraging Facebook to launch social media campaigns. But there are limitations: marketers can reach only Facebook members and agencies must work within the constraints of the platform. There's an opportunity for marketers and agencies to identify meaningful experiences through brand-created platforms. This will enable brands to develop owned media channels to springboard campaigns, show content and promote community building.

In other words, all ye who flock to Facebook are akin to lemmings en route on a one-way ticket to cliff central. Enter "brand-created platforms" which is the 3 word (or 2-word if you want to credit the hyphen) pivot upon which this article rests. 

So much so that this quote from the preceding paragraph absolutely comes into play, "The campaign (Gap's Born to Fit) points to a future where such social media efforts could eliminate the need for a company Web site."

On the one hand, it's an apparent contradiction. If a brand doesn't need a website, then does it need a "brand-created platform"? On the other hand, it represents a scenario where a "brand-created platform" is neither an old-fashioned, traditional website; nor is it the complete cession of its equity, purpose and point of view to the masses (and certainly to the noise) as per Skittles.

I'm still not sure what the "IT" is from Bob's perspective. Although he points to MyStarbucksIdea, Lego's Ambassador Program and of course, Gap's new effort...I hope it's not a codename for justifying elaborate web development to build highly technical (read: expensive), functional (read: expensive) and experiential (read: expensive) sites.

In the world of social media, things are somewhat topsy-turvy insofar that production is both typically and relatively lower, however human capital/cost/investment is typically signficiantly higher...certainly over time.

That's the midde ground. And it comes in the form of one word: "time." Over time, the community grows. Over time the value of the platform grows. Over time, the initial investment is spread over a longer term - thereby presenting a one two punch of efficiency-effectiveness.

And this is where I'd like to believe that Bob Greenberg and Bob Greenberg (Panasonic's) are sympatico - at least as far as "Living in High Definition" is concerned (Panasonic's community for all things HD, which crayon has been working on with Panasonic for a while now) 

As we say at crayon, "marketing is not a campaign; it's a commitment" and whether we're talking about communications, advertising, brand building or even web development, it all applies equally when the goal is to foster and nurture long term, authentic, meaningful and productive relationships with customers.

OK, that's not exactly a true story. But in a true moment of unexpected synchronicity, the debate over Bob Garfield's Chaos Scenario, AT&T's lame Seth the not-really-a-blogger guy outreach effort, MTV's integration of Twitter into the web broadcast of last night's VMAs (btw, Kanye, seriously WTF man) and P&G's push to grow their e-commerce revenue are all topics on this week's BeanCast.

And yup, I join cool bean Bob Knorpp, Adland.tv's Ask Wappling, Mediassociates' Ben Kunz and Mr. Make-the-logo-bigger Bill Green in a fun filled hour-long discussion of this past week's most interesting industry news items.

Listen, subscribe and get the show notes (including all the squeaky clean links) on the Beancast site.

 I'm on record from a post dated December 6th, 2006, titled, "Death of the Portal" and I don't want this post necessarily to be a rant or an "I told you so."

That said, I felt I had to comment on the announcement that AOL has hired Leo Burnett to "communicate its upcoming reinvention to people around the world."

Gee, I wonder how many 30-second spots it will cost to do that? (Perhaps they could consult with GM)

If only there was some magical, mystical, fantastical device that could digitally or electronically talk to the entire world simultaneously at the simple push of a "send" button without necessarily costing a cent to do so.

A man can dream.

A man can dream.

If only there was a built-in, installed base; a community if you will of like-minded people that would be predisposed to receive said message.

...but alas, time-travel is not possible and we cannot go back 5+ years to when AOL actually had the coveted reach that they continued to throw good money after bad to woo into submission.

Leo's President talks about blazing a new trail when it comes to the beleaguered brand's separation from Time Warner...but all I can visualize is the separation of Enterprise's saucer from its primary hull - a move which was undertaken in the event of a "catastrophic emergency."

'er that would be now. And the emergency in question would be the inevitable death of AOL as it vainly and stubbornly attempts to convince us otherwise with yet another dose of over the top advertising.

In the words of the famous AOL sign-off, "good bye."

Jet Blue just hit 1MM followers on Twitter. And I'm pretty sure if you're a competing airline and/or any other brand in general, you don't. Is it good? Is it bad? I summize. You decide. Also in this episode, my 5 suggested uses of Twitter for brands.

1. Listening strategy
2. Responding to people
3. Engagement strategy
4. Customer service
5. "Being one of the guys" (personifying, personalizing and humanizing the brand)

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
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Spread the word:

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This episode is about Big Brother AKA corporations that monitoring, spy and eavesdrop on their employees and even fire them. There will be a revolution my friends and it will not be televised or tweeted, but it will be chronicled on someone's Facebook wall. More on the Proofpoint study here.

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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My latest Adweek column is up and discusses the ongoing R.F.P. debate, which was stirred up again recently with both Current and Zappos. fwiw, crayon participated in both, but to be perfectly honest with you, we never had a problem with either.

At the end of the day, marketers should do whatever it is that they are inclined to do. It's their budget after all. Agencies on the other hand either have to abide by the rules (and quit moaning), respectfully abstain, break the rules or reframe the conversation (what we did)

That said, I do feel that the current process is broken and without throwing a pretty meaningful spanner in the works, will just keep on perpetuating the same vicious cycle that sees agency after agency hired and fired with nothing but mediocre work as the end product.

One more thing: I do acknowledge that my comment about search consultants right at the end of the article was perhaps a little too harsh. I've never met a search consultant I didn't like. Then again, I've never met a search consultant.

Here's the article:

Remaking the account review process

The trades have been atwitter lately with a number of RFP kerfuffles. First Current. Then Zappos. In the former, the story behind the story was the innovative use of Twitter to source and select the initial agency shortlist by then-Current employee Jordan Kretchmer. In the latter, the epicenter revolved around a blog post from Ignited executive creative director Mike Wolfsohn, who wrote that the agency's pitch -- one of 104 -- was given only a cursory glance by Zappos employees.

What did these two cases have in common? What can we learn from them? More importantly, to what extent do they mirror or expose bigger, deeper and more pressing challenges or concerns that remain unaddressed in the industry?

For one thing, it's clear that new technology matters. In the case of Current, the catalyst was Twitter. Kretchmer bypassed the search consultant world, his Rolodex and the trades' "Best of Lists" to go straight to the horse's mouth. In doing so, he also (knowingly or not) instituted an interesting criteria: In order to participate, an agency needed to be on Twitter, e.g., using the tool they'd most likely be recommending. Kretchmer could easily check how long the agencies in question had been on Twitter and also how they used it and other social devices to get his attention.

In the case of Zappos, Ignited used Google Analytics to determine that its online RFP had only been glanced at.
 
These recent RFPs also point out how tough things are. Agencies are fairly desperate or appear to be when they clamber over one another for an opportunity to sink their teeth into the scraps du jour on offer.

There is a bright spot: It's obvious that there are a staggering number of small, independent and surprisingly competent boutiques or startups out there right now. (Most of them, however, don't have a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding relative to the bevy of Goliaths muscling them out the equation.)

Also, rules are rules. If you agree to play by them, don't complain or cry foul if the result doesn't go your way.

Maybe it's time to fix the RFP process because it's not going to get better on its own. In fact, it's only going to get worse. Here are 10 points or calls to action -- arguably even calls to arms.

1. Time is money: Every agency that participates should be compensated. Compensation should increase based on the "round" of the RFP and the level of participation, commitment and contribution.

2. No more spec creative: Agencies that have portfolios and case studies in place should be able to draw on them comprehensively. If an agency does not have sufficient "collateral," then it's up to the shop to volunteer or offer up whatever it takes to help illustrate its capabilities and contribution.

3. Ideas belong to the people that created them: If a client likes the idea that much, he or she should hire the agency or just buy the idea. How hard is that?

4. Don't "break the line": Agencies continue to undercut and essentially stab each other in the back. If a client or search consultant makes an unreasonable request, he or she knows at least one agency will capitulate and set a precedent that is not scalable.

5. Hold search consultants equally accountable: If the buck stops with the client, then it starts with the search consultant. A search consultant's compensation should be tied to post-selection agency performance and tenure.

6. Force agencies to walk their talk: In a world that is increasingly contingent on an acute and deep expertise in all things new media, why not expect agencies to prove their level of adoption, knowledge and application instead of showing how well they do at answering 1,000 standardized questions (wasn't school bad enough)?

7. Walk away: Times are tough, but compromising your values, belief, culture and integrity for a one in 100 shot at redemption comes at a price that you may not be able to bear long term. There are plenty of better ways of securing new business, raising the visibility of your agency and establishing credibility in the market. And clients will notice.
 
8. Keep it real: Let's face it, oftentimes this is going to come down to past relationships, lowest price or sexiness. The new CMO is almost always going to hire his or her agency. Procurement is almost always going to tip the scales in favor of the bargain-basement offer. Crispin Porter is almost always going to make clients giddy with their mystique, aura and talking Beetles. So instead of complaining, just get on with it. Accept your lot in life graciously or make a conscious effort to break the cycle.

9. Extend the RFP NDA: Do this to cover leaking or releasing to the trades with instant elimination as the penalty for contravening these terms. It's one sure fire way to avoid a menagerie of suitors.

10. It takes two to tango: If the client chooses to hire a search consultant who is going to turn immediately to his or her subset of kick-back cronies, then it serves them right if they theoretically don't get the best available. You get what you pay for. On the flip side, agencies that aren't selected should take it as a clear sign they need to improve their market/brand recognition and visibility.

With disclosure, crayon participated in both the Current and Zappos pitches, so I guess we were as guilty as the others for perpetuating the vicious cycle.

The days, nights and weekends have been super-busy for those of us working at crayon -- just one of several reasons you've seen fewer scintillating blog posts than you've come to expect 'round these parts. So in this post, I'll kill two birds with one stone and tell you about a cool new program we just launched for Panasonic that we've dubbed LiHD Insider.

But first a little background...

I've written before about our work on Panasonic's Living in HD community and some of the ways we've involved social media influencers in the program. If there are common threads running through the work we've done with Panasonic they are as follows:

1. Demonstration Beats Communication Every Time: Put products directly into the hands of real families as a means of demonstrating just how much impact new Panasonic HD technologies can have on how real people spend their time and make memories, but also to gain better insights into what consumers want and how they use consumer electronics in their everyday lives.
2. A Brand Can Serve as a Catalyst to Bring Together Likeminded People: This is what the LiHD community is all about -- connecting people to people around a passion point and giving them access to information, inspiration and ideas to fuel that passion.
3. A Program that is Inherently Social Should Engage Consumers Directly Through Social Marketing: Whether you're a member of the Living in HD community or not, you can also find LiHD, its people and its content throughout the social web in places like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. Blogger outreach and influencer/enthusiast engagement have been standard operating procedure since we started working with Panasonic way back in early 2008.

And so these three threads tie together in our latest promotion: a contest to find the next LiHD Insider.

Who and what is an LiHD Insider, you ask? An LiHD Insider is a content creator and social media maven -- someone who blogs, vlogs or podcasts and loves to connect with interesting people online -- who'd like a chance to get a full suite of Panasonic HD gear and a peek at the newest coolest products before they're available to the general public. You'll also get a Lumix G1 (I love my G1) to give away to one member of your own audience so he or she can get a taste of the HD life too. Nice...

If you fit the bill (and I'm sure some of you do), you can visit LiHD to get all the details and enter the contest -- but why not take a few moments to hear all about it straight from the horse's mouth.  Or at least straight from the mouth of a guy standing in front of a huge photo of a horse: one of our current LiHD Insiders, the popular video blogger Steve Garfield.

[Click through for the video if you can't see it in your email or feed reader.]

So LiHD Insider isn't just a great way to find out what it's like to live in HD; it's also your chance to take your content creation to the next level. Sound cool?  Then you should enter to win -- it's easy to do, but you'll need to get your application in before October 6th.

Chicago photographer, Sarah Hadley, has packed her suitcases and moved to Los Angeles, and the left coast is lucky to have her. Sarah works both as a fine art and editorial photographer, and manages to have a piled-high plate of awards, grants, and exhibitions. Much of Sarah’s fine art work has a reference to dreams, whether it be imagery of the space where we dream the most in Unconscious Terrain, or dreamy interpretations of places around the world.

I think every photographer talks about the magic of seeing that first image appear in a tray of developer and of being hooked for life. I believe a good photograph asks more questions than it answers, and my photography is a way for me to constantly challenge myself to really look at the world around me.

There is something intangible about the best photographs, something that reminds us of the moment between wake and sleep, and of the beauty that we see and feel but cannot describe, and of our own mortality. These are the kinds of images I try to make.

Images from Unconscious Terrain

These photos (from one of my favorite photography blogs, lenscratch) have haunted me for the last four days. I really enjoy B&W photography and these pictures really capture the rumpled romanticism of an unmade bed.

Posted via web from Jane’s Posterous

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Episode 37: Publicis just acquired Razorfish for $530 million. They continue to pull further and further ahead. Here's what this move means for the industry from a digital and social perspective.

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show. And thank you to all those who have already joined the Employee Purchase Program.

You can still participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

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So it's official. Jeremiah and I are not working together. You'll have to listen to hear details of his new gig. But the two of us are going to record an episode of the show together once a month (schedules permitting). Should be fun.

Audio comments to +1 206 203-3255. Follow me on Twitter (@jaffejuice) and Jeremiah (@jowyang)

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The first step is often the hardest step, isn't it? Unless it's the first step you take off the plane in Las Vegas. Not irrelevant but not really my point either... I'm talking about getting buy-in for your company's (or client's) first social media marketing program.

If you've been championing social media inside your organization or suggesting it to your clients, you know that winning support from a senior-level skeptic can be quite a challenge. You may be a believer, but your CMO, CEO, corporate communications gatekeeper or that woman down the hall who controls the purse strings isn't sold on the value or importance of social media. And without their buy-in, odds are good you won't be experimenting with social (let alone making it a fixture of your integrated marketing approach) any time soon.

My BFF (blog friend forever) Jason Falls and I were talking about this very challenge a month or so ago, and I walked him through a set of arguments (some rational, some emotional) that I've found to be pretty effective in getting skeptical clients to take the plunge.

Evidently he liked at least some of what I said, cuz when he lined up speakers for the "Social Media Business Summit" track at this year's Blog World & New Media Expo, he asked me to present a session on making the case for social media.

So this October, I'm Vegas bound and hope some of you will be too.

My 30-minute session -- From Skeptic to Advocate: Proving the Business Case to Your Boss or Client -- happens at 1:15pm on Saturday, October 17th and should be a nice combination of business in the front and party in the back (in other words, strike the right balance between informative and fun for a Saturday afternoon in Sin City.)

If you're thinking of attending Blog World & New Media Expo or want to find out what's in store, you can find the details on their site. Lots and lots of great speakers covering a wide variety of new media-related topics. And it's Vegas baby!

A note to Jaffe Juice digest subscribers. You'll need to click through to the blog if you want to view the JaffeJuiceTV videos. YouTube and iTunes direct subscription links are also listed below.

Episode 36: Were we prepared? 1.7 million weren't. Whilst we should never underestimate our consumers, we also shouldn't get too far ahead of them. Here's why....

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show. And thank you to all those who have already joined the Employee Purchase Program.

You can still participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

Spread the word:

• Tell Bugs Bunny, your friends, clients and co-workers
• Tweet or RT: New JJTV: Never underestimate your customer, but also don't get too far ahead of them - http://bit.ly/digtv 
• Subscribe to the show via iTunes or YouTube
• Leave a video response

A note to Jaffe Juice digest subscribers. You'll need to click through to the blog if you want to view the JaffeJuiceTV videos. YouTube and iTunes direct subscription links are also listed below.

Episode 35: Somebody call 9-1-1. Shawty's slow dancing on the dance floor. This episode is all about change and how/why it almost always takes longer than we think or ever would imagine. Inspired by an article that Office Depot is putting their Sunday circular online... 

Thank you to HP for sponsoring this show. And thank you to all those who have already joined the Employee Purchase Program.

You can still participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

Spread the word:

• Tell your CEO, your friends, clients and co-workers
• Tweet or RT: New JJTV: Why does change always take longer than we ever expect? http://bit.ly/shawty 
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This is the Year of Mobile. It has finally arrived. No seriously. It has. I'm not kidding. The third place. If you don't believe me, check out this study. And you can thank the iPhone for it all.

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

Spread the word:

• Tell your fave 5, your friends, clients and co-workers
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George Parker over at Adscam critiques (read: lambastes) the latest Old Spice effort via Wieden + Kennedy.

And then one of the commenters says something to the tune of, "if you think that's (the print/TV) bad, you should check out the website"

So I did.

And boy do I wish I hadn't.

For so many reasons.

Including this (I'm making it as small as I can because I'm not intentionally trying to stir the pot. If you click on the image, you can see a larger version or just head on over to the site)

What does that look like to you? 

Is it just me? 

Did the creatives pull a fast one over their unsuspecting clients?

Hmmmmmmmm.

PS Who's giving odds this is pulled within the next 2 weeks?

George Parker over at Adscam critiques (read: lambastes) the latest Old Spice effort via Wieden + Kennedy.

And then one of the commenters says something to the tune of, "if you think that's (the print/TV) bad, you should check out the website"

So I did.

And boy do I wish I hadn't.

For so many reasons.

Including this (I'm making it as small as I can because I'm not intentionally trying to stir the pot. If you click on the image, you can see a larger version or just head on over to the site)

What does that look like to you? 

Is it just me? 

Did the creatives pull a fast one over their unsuspecting clients?

Hmmmmmmmm.

This morning I noticed a few of my Facebook and Twitter friends linking to StopWritingOnMyWall.com,  a site for the Social Media Addicts Association. The SMAA aims to break addicted social media dorks users of their habits and their decidedly low-rent site gives members plenty of ways to express support and spread the word -- from buying anti-social media t-shirts to uploading their own stories of social media addiction for the organization's YouTube channel to tweeting and updating their Facebook walls with pro-SMAA and anti-social messages.

After all, what better way to kick your social media addition than by Tweeting about it. Ummm... At crayon we talk about using new marketing to prove new marketing (in other words, we walk the talk) so is it possible to kick social media by using social media? Or more accurately, embrace social media by poking fun at social media?

Because of course it's all tongue-in-cheek. There is no SMAA and the effort isn't really an anti-social media campaign, but a social media marketing campaign aimed at the social media community it lampoons.

A subtle "powered by" link at the bottom of the page, a 300x250 Vaio ad in the right-hand rail and a not-so-subtle Sony tagline at the end of the video in the hero position should be enough to tip off even the most casual observer -- the SMAA is a European marketing campaign for the Sony Vaio.

Check out the SMAA viral video which is actually kinda funny (feed and email readers click through to the blog to watch the embedded video.)

So can Sony win the hearts and earn the dollars of members of the social media community by poking fun at them?

From what I can see, the program isn't exactly setting the web on fire but, as I write this, it's barely a day old. So we'll see. The humor has a certain geek appeal and the program certainly seems to be less dubious that that fake PSP blog from a couple of years back.

Chime in with your thoughts.

As a side note, the whole program seems to be a spiritual sister of the equally tongue-in-cheek Social Networking Rehab blog by Jeff Sass. Also, for what it's worth, I am blogging this from my Sony Vaio.

Repeat after me 3 times, my little kittens: It's all about the product. It's all about the product. It's all about the product!

Get it?

Got it?

Good!

You're invited to participate in HP's Employee Purchase Program (EPP) for friends 'n family discounts on the full portfolio of HP and Compaq consumer products. Here's what you need to do:

• Visit www.hpshopping.com/employee/jaffejuicetv and register to join the program
• You'll need to enter in EPP company code: 3807
• You'll receive additional exclusive offers if you sign up for the Monthly EPP newsletter

Spread the word:

• Tell The Colonel, your friends, clients and co-workers
• Tweet or RT: New JJTV: It's grilled, not fried people! http://bit.ly/grilled
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