SCHMITTblog

The end has come

I started blogging seven years ago when it was “cool.”  More than 200 blogs later, I will stop.

Technology has moved on; thus, SCHMITT has to move on.  We will leave the blogging to the professor who discovered it just recently.

Please find (as long as these technologies last):

My videos at www.YouTube.com/MeetSchmitt.

My videos, photos, and text at www.facebook.com/MeetSchmitt.

My short views on things at www.twitter.com/MeetSchmitt 

And all sorts of information at my web site, www.MeetSchmitt.com

This blog will be left as a historical document.

 

Do consumers view technology as magic?

More than a hundred years ago, sociologist Max Weber wrote that secularization—or the "disenchantment of the world"—lay at the heart of modern society. He argued that due to the industrial revolution and advances in science, the modern world had become less mysterious and more predictable to individuals, and society as a whole had become more rational and bureaucratic.

Last week, in a talk here at Columbia, Russ Belk, professor at York University in Toronto and a leading consumer culture researcher, argued that consumers view new technologies – computers, the internet, and nowadays social media – at first, before they get used to the technology, as—magic.   His argument is quite intriguing. As evidence, just watch the resurrected video of Steve Jobs introducing the Macintosh – appropriately dubbed “the magic moment” by TextLab, the discoverers and restorers of that film. 

Belk points to the possibility that our modern world never fully rationalized, that there was always an emotional and magical undercurrent, and that the "theme  of magic" now, paradoxically, manifests itself in consumers’ admiration of the very device that was supposed to erase it—technology.

Yes you can - not blog

Some have asked me whether I am still blogging. Yes … sure … occasionally … less and less frequently.
That is, I have thus entered a new "relationship" with this technology. In stage 1 (blog 1.0, right?), I was curious and cranked out nonsensical blog after blog on a weekly basis. In blog 2.0., I felt obligated to blog every other week, even when I had nothing to say. Now, I have finally reached blogging nirvana: I blog when I feel like it.

Maybe I am not alone?  Anonymous Bloggists come forward!  There is hope … yes, you can, yes you dare—not blog!

So, as we are entering blog 4.0, expect a blog only if the blogger has something to say. 

Twitter and Work

Jack and Suzie (Welch), in their Business Week column, report that they now tweet.

How sweet.

They don’t know exactly why they do what they do but assure us: Just try and you will find out.

More and more otherwise reasonable people seem to be using Twitter, not knowing exactly why they do. Could  it be that they are just afraid being left out? But left out of what?

On my visit to UCLA, I had a conversation about this phenomenon with my co-author and friend, Professor Shi Zhang. We concluded that maybe some day soon there will be a counter-movement that stresses that it is cool to work again—and not waste time.

The Singapore Goverment Raps

From Singapore, with love. Check this out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksw2UqTyhhc

Whover  thought Singapore is  boring??!! This is a rap prepared by senior members of a media  group of the Singapore government!   In all its tackiness,  this is quite cool. A bit too long, but very funny. Maybe they are trying too hard, but they must be complimented for having the guts to do it.

BRITE conference (this week)

I will be speaking this week on Big Think, and leading an interactive session for CMOs on sourcing big ideas, as part of the BRITE '08 conference and CMO summit on branding, innovation, and technology, at Columbia Business School, this Thursday and Friday, Feb 7-8th.

BRITE '08 is part of a major initiative by my Center on Global Brand Leadership at the school.  The event will bring together big thinkers from business, technology, media, and marketing to discuss how technology and innovation are transforming the ways that companies build and sustain great brands.

Topics include: social networks, user-generated content, viral campaigns, B2B branding, driving innovation inside and outside the organization, ROI for online marketing, TV 2.0, online content platforms, brands that thought big in 2007

Fellow speakers include:
    * Marty Homlish (Global Chief Marketing Officer, SAP)
    * Craig Newmark (Founder, Craigslist)
    * Patia McGrath (Global Director of Innovation, GE)
    * Bob Greenberg (Global Chief Creative Officer, R/GA)
    * Andrew Miller (CEO, Quattro Wireless)
(full speaker list)

Conference registration is here.  There is also a BRITE blog, wiki, and more fun things to explore.

I hope you can join us!

-Schmitt

Super Bowl Ads Go Online – or do they?

Many in my family tuned into the Super Bowl on Sunday to watch football.  But I fall into the reported 36% of Super Bowl fans who tune in each year primarily to watch the advertisements.

This year, advertisers paid $2.7 million for each 30 second slice of air time, but you didn’t have to turn on your TV for a minute to catch them.  YouTube, AOL, and MySpace provided online sites where you could watch the entire roster of ads and vote on them.  I’m sure SCHMITT wasn’t the only marketing guru to cancel their annual Super Bowl party this year as a result (Schmitt went to a classical music concert, and caught the ads online, like me).

But did the Super Bowl ads really make the transition online – to the new world of networking sites, user content, and interactive media?  Leading up to the game, there was much buzz about how advertisers were “exploring new ways to bring their ads online… to make [their] steep investment go further.” (Wall Street Journal)

But almost without exception, the advertisers failed to use their TV ad as a jumping off point for an online experience – one that could be more interactive, engaging, and potentially sales-driving.  (A notable exception was the super-tacky GoDaddy.com, which created a “censored ad” that you had to go to their site to watch.) Even user-generated ads were on the decline, with a single Doritos spot.

Instead, the ad agencies fell back to their old habits of telling 30 second “stories” about a brand, hoping that a tale of goofy cavemen, noble clydesdales, or aphrodisiac peanuts would make you think their brand was “funny,” “inspiring,” or “irresistable.”

We’ll continue the discussion this week as part of the BRITE ’08 conference and CMO summit on branding, innovation, and technology at Columbia, February 7-8th.  Bob and other marketing leaders from G.E., SAP, Fox, and more, will be discussing what the new models are for building brands in an age of interactive media.

For now, I’d give the Super Bowl ad line up a B+ on creativity, and a D- on catching the new media paradigm.

- David Rogers

Second Life Has Opening for Ben Bernanke Avatar

Last week the virtual world of Second Life experienced its first ever bank run. It seems that while the new Federal Reserve discount rate brought relief to the financial crisis in the real world, Ben S. Bernanke’s surprising move has yet to bring calm in virtual reality. Even the Economist magazine ran a story this week of the impending financial crisis in Second Life. Perhaps the virtual world really does mirror the real world? 

Or maybe not. Second Life’s financial problems began when increasing scandals led to a FBI probe into Second Life’s most profitable industry: gambling. Turns out the easiest solution for Linden Labs (Second Life's owners) was simply to ban gambling outright. This move has proved to be a big mistake: gambling was one of only two attractions that had any visitors on an otherwise deserted Second Life (the other is virtual sex shops, still operating).

Shortly after the ban was announced, gambling-loving electronic alter-egos attempted to cash-out so many Linden dollars from Second Life that it forced one of the largest banks, Ginko Financial, to cease operations and declare insolvency, meaning it will be unable to repay U.S. $750,000 to its investors. Amazingly, the bank is still taking deposits.

But that’s not the whole story. The thousands of angry avatars lining up in front of virtual teller machines were shocked to learn that Ginko Financial, an unregulated, unaudited virtual bank promising a hefty 44% annual return and run by a faceless owner (whose identity remains a mystery even in the light of all this controversy), might in fact be a pyramid scheme. 

Weeks ago, at the Economics of Second Life & Virtual Worlds Conference at Columbia Business School, Linden Labs’ John Lester (a.k.a. “Pathfinder Linden”) described the three dimensional virtual world of Second Life as a self-regulating entity. Wistfully, Lester spoke of a lawless Utopian society where simply by virtue of good intentions users are able to define their own sets of rules and regulations. Not too surprisingly, it looks like this fantasy has all but come to an end.

This raises the question, will Ben Bernanke offer a discount rate to struggling Second Lifers?

We Map the World

Just when I was starting to think that social media (“user-generated content”) are destined to give us little more than an ocean of self-description (party photos, MySpace profiles, and favorite band lists)… something comes along and surprises me.

Like the recent New York Times article about the rise of map mash-ups (“With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking” 7/26/07).

I’ve actually used one of these for over a year. OnNYturf (http://www.onnyturf.com/subway/) has taken Google’s map of New York City and overlaid it with a map of the city’s subway system.  So the next time you need to find your way to an unobvious address (say… 200 Henry Street), all you have to do is type it into this site and zoom around to see which subway stop is closest (East Broadway on the F train), whether there are any other options (Delancey Street on the J, M, or Z aren’t much further), and what train connections you might make to get there.

The Times reports that by opening up their online map platforms to users, Google’s My Maps service and Microsoft’s Collections are allowing people to create millions of maps, showing mountain bike rides, biodiesel fueling stations in New England, even a map that shows the spread of graffiti within the town of Federal Way, WA.  Location-tagged photos from Flickr can be pulled in too, to add ground-level photos to a new map mash-up.  The total result, dubbed the GeoWeb, is turning into a project that might rival Wikipedia in its usefulness and collaborative spirit.

-David Rogers

[Read the full NYTimes article]

Why the End of Creative Advertising Is Near, and Why We Should Rejoice

Last year I had a speaker in my EMBA class from an interactive ad agency who took a question from a student who worked at Google.  He quickly started talking about how agencies like his can collaborate with Google. Did I smell a note of fear in the room?

Next week I'm taking this semester's class to Google's NYC headquarters. To offer a little balance, I wanted to invite a speaker from an ad agency to come and speak as well.  I chose a "hot" agency recently lauded with a major award by a leading industry magazine.  Let's call the agency "The Mongolian Horde" (not their real name, but close).  First we went to their website, which hardly worked, it was so "design-ey."  Then we tried calling their office -- and got a voicemail saying "The Mongolian Horde's office is closed for President's Day" -- even though that holiday was 10 days ago.  ???!!!!??? 

I have a dream... that one day in the very near future that sort of "creativity" will be gone.  And I will rejoice!