Sometimes, pulling ideas out of people takes work, myself included. Ideas exist in our minds, but sometimes they are ill-formed or fragmented partial ideas. Workshops/ideation sessions are part of the equation to generating valuable insights.
Have you ever been in a non-structured workshop or brainstorm session? I have.
It’s painful.
I believe no idea is a bad idea, but I also believe that ideas need to be focused around the task/objective at hand. For instance if you are trying to build a content strategy for a company/brand to expand an existing campaign, we don’t necessarily want ideas about a new campaign to surface—that would be off strategy.
I’m all for taking every idea into consideration, but it helps when the brainstorm is structured so the output of the session is as strategically focused and actionable as possible.
Overtime, I’ve sat through and led many workshops and learned from the best of best what works. Preparing for an ideation session is an arduous task and first starts with getting the stakeholders smart on the target needs, category analysis and brand objectives. The deep dive is one of my favorite parts of my job (I’m an insights junky). But then comes the thinking.
Moderating the workshop is another story. There are plenty of methods and constructs to exercise the mind in unconventional ways. Lately I’ve been experimenting with new ways/tools to garner valuable and relevant thinking, particularly around the utilization of emerging technology and digital/social channels— an area that not everyone at the table may have knowledge of, or experience with. Mindmaps, evaluative criteria and worksheets just scratch the surface of available tools. I frequently leverage my colleagues’ experience and approaches every time I put a workshop plan/deck together and it’s professional goal of mine this year to focus more heavily on these skills as they relate to innovation and digital engagement.
I’m looking forward to honing my planning skills by attending the Planning-ness Conference 2012 this May with one of my favorite colleagues/friends. It’s a conference for creative thinkers and explorers that is focused on “doing”, not talking. I have waxed on about the T-Shaped skills that I think all strategists should have: the ability to think and do; what I love about this conference is that each of the sessions has a learning component where you are taught a new skill or way to approach a problem, and a doing component where you put it all into action.
I’m confident that having exposure to a creatively inspired agenda and interacting with a small group of strategists will open my mind to new ways of creative problem solving and thinking about business and marketing in general; takeaways that go way beyond leading successful workshops.
A new beta arrived in my inbox today that I have been waiting for over the past few weeks and I couldn’t be happier!
A few months ago I wrote about bad email marketing and the level of anxiety my overflowing inbox brings me everyday. By choice, over the last few years (pre social media madness) email has been the basis for my “digital” CRM communication. I consciously opt into 75% of the CRM emails I receive. Key word- consciously. It keeps everything I want in one place, my inbox. I receive ~75-100 marketing/solicitation emails a day but as of late it’s just become too much of a burden. I’ve found myself shying away from reading my gmail in the evening and I sometimes miss important emails from family, friends, etc.
I may or may not have spent vacation time cleaning out my inbox and unsubscribing from unwanted emails only for ½ of them never to take effect in my prompt to ‘Go Away!” This ridiculously efficient service just saved me hours of time by consolidating (or deleting) most of my email subscriptions.
What is Unroll.me? Unroll.me allows you to unsubscribe from unwanted email subscriptions, or organize them all in one place in a single “rollup” email; a digest that gives me an overview of all the subscriptions I receive each day, and I can set the time I prefer the rollup to arrive.
In 10 minutes, I just accomplished what would have taken me an entire day to do, weeding through all those preferences and settings pages…who has the time? One thing to note is that after clicking the fifth subscription you want to unsubscribe from, you’ll be prompted to refer friends to unsubscribe to the rest in bulk. You can do the referral via email (to five friends), send a tweet, or post a Facebook message. #GetInvolved! #InboxSanity! To get an idea of how many email subscriptions I had, and what the rollup looks like- check out the screen grab below.
click to enlarge image
If I change my mind and desperately miss seeing in RackedNY my inbox every morning, I can always remove the subscription from my rollup to get it directly back in my inbox. But until then, I’m going to hope this magic API works and bask in the glory of a manageable inbox.
Unroll.Me only supports GMail, Yahoo, and AOL right now but the company is working on support for other platforms. I have 5 beta invitations- tweet me @jaeselle if you are interested in one!
I have an inner circle of friends that consists of digital strategists and marketing executives who are deep into social; Social Media Week might as well be our Social New Year. There are braintrust brunches and happy hours held specifically to coordinate schedules and plan for meetups.
Social media is not new by any means, but it’s an ever evolving medium; platforms change everyday and our industry is flooded with new market entrants faster than we can keep up with. Social has redefined traditional PR and the largest contributor to the Owned, Earned, Paid media construct. The need to stay emerged remains constant for anyone working in advertising/marketing/pr. (more…)
Someone asked me the other day to explain my job function. I started to talk about one thing and then another and then another and then another…and then I stopped when I realized I was jumping all over the place and said, “I think I need to visualize the structure and get back to you”.
This was an eye opening moment for me in many ways because over the past 2 years my responsibilities have grown, shifted, adapted and redefined themselves on a need-based timeline. I know what I do on a daily basis; I know no day is ever the same; I’m in a needs-based position. I am also cognizant of having the word strategist in my title; it begs for a “functional” definition of what do you “do”? Not what do you “think”– but what is it that you “do”, what do you “produce”?
So I’ve gone through this exercise to sketch out what is I think a digital strategist/planner does. (based on my personal experiences and what skills I believe are needed for optimal cross-channel marketing integration)
The net-net: I believe a digital strategist provide guidance to departments: account, creative, UX and production & works as a liaison with departments such as UX, IT, project management and analytics. We facilitate the path for others to define and design sustainable ideas, quality engagement initiatives and memorable experiences across digital channel opportunities, and sometimes I even create those paths alone, by myself. (more…)
I am not going to wax poetic on Zygna’s successes Farmville or Mafia Wars because they annoy me to no end and I wish people would stop herding sheep on Facebook because I think there are better ways to spend your time! As my Yelp profile says “I have opinions”, and so I digress.
What I am going to highlight are a few evolving marketing theories and platforms I have become more familiar with over the last few years as they relate to applying behavioral change modeling to gamification & marketing.
As defined by Wikipedia, Gamification is the use of game play thinking 1 and mechanics to solve problems and engage audiences. Typically gamification applies to non-game applications (also known as “funware”),2 particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the applications. It also strives to encourage users to engage in desired behaviors in connection with the applications.3 Gamification works by making technology more engaging,4 and by encouraging desired behaviors, taking advantage of humans’ psychological predisposition to engage in gaming.5 The technique can encourage people to perform chores that they ordinarily consider boring, such as completing surveys, shopping, or reading web sites.4
A few weeks ago I watched a riveting 60 minute Google tech talk “Fun is the Future: Mastering Gamification” by Gabe Zichermann; a marketing goldmind. Theories on how gamification is currently in-progress of redefining what old loyalty programs used to be—no longer about the intrinsic product or rewards per say, but replacing them with personal status as a new type of reward. Now as a marketer, you may say “but it always has to be about my product!” True to a point, but it’s all in the delivery and shaping what the “reward” looks and feels like for the consumer. This is a must-watch for anyone in marketing thinking about, or currently re-establishing their customer relationship marketing programs to better align with customer expectations of the forms in which brand loyalty translates to them.
60 minutes of goodness- I would bookmark this for Sunday evening enjoyment, it’s worth it!
Absorbing the theories in this talk has fueled a personal fury of ideas surrounding marketing, gamification and mainstream acceptance and utilization as we have seen demonstrated with social platforms like Foursquare. Most recently there have been some newcomers to the “game” if you will applying these theories across multiple industries looking to drive behavioral change amongst their consumer targets, such as DailyFeats and Foodzy, just to name a few.
No stranger to the gaming world,Foursquare has come a long way in maturing their businesses model; no longer viewed as a “stalker” app to broadcast your daily visits around town & finding where your friends are, there’s more to it and this social game has 8M users, 2.5M check-ins everyday. They have led they way for driving behavioral change by checking into local venues earning you points, sometimes specials & discounts at participating retailers as well as badges based on the different types of places you frequent; 50% of the badges are sponsored by national brands and local brands businesses. The more brands and companies you follow, they more opportunity you have to un-lock a special badge created by them. Independent satisfaction for you whilst climbing the leaderboard vs. your friends.
Foursquaropoly has taken the API from Foursquare and building a citywide game around buying & owning properties just gives reason for more social interaction with our friends in NYC. Billed as “Monopolize Your Life.” a gaming app that uses Foursquare to make you the game piece and your city the board. They have launched some recent press surrounding their use case and are still currently in development, but this video gives a GREAT idea of what’s to come. I can see down the road all forms of monetization for this platform with local businesses as well. I can’t wait for this.
Foursquare has effectively tied together 3 things: motivation, simplicity and triggers for acting on a check-in. They have driven behavioral change across socializing location-based marketing. How does the Foursquare gaming model translate into health?
Sometimes, gaming just isn’t about monetary or tangible rewards such as discounts, points as much as it is about personal rewards. Everyday, most of us, strive to lead a life full of satisfaction attained through the creation of personal goals and accomplishments. In the age of mobile living sometimes writing these goals down in your notebook doesn’t really fuel the effort it takes to accomplish them.
Enter mobile/portable coaching through gamification.
Myriad goals exist in the form of feeling better, being productive, eating well, complying with/being aware of drug/food interactions and allergies. Such are all examples of what an individual determines to be a “healthy interaction” throughout their day, week or month.
There is a method to the madness behind cultivating healthy behavioral change, or any behavioral change for that matter. No one covers this more in-depth than BJ Fogg, founder of the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, my personal go-to for all things behaviorally related on his blog Behavior Model. His research focuses on designing for behavioral change using today’s technology via the FBM model. The FBM highlights three principal elements, each of which has subcomponents.
3 Core Motivators (Motivation)
6 Simplicity Factors (Ability)
3 types of Triggers (Action)
The takeaway: “while motivation is very high, ability can still be low.” You have to establish the triggers of change and participatory adoption.
In marketing speak— you need market traction, you need your audience to participate (acquisition/compliance), and keep participating (retention/persistency). They key building blocks to any successful business plan or individual tactical objective and/or strategy.
Marketing healthy rewards
There are a plethora of mobile coaching programs, apps and services in market today to help people make healthier choices. But again- when it comes to marketing, your biggest competition is what and how the rest of the world is accustomed to responding and actively participating in something. WIFM? What’s in it for me mentality? Everyone wants to be incentivized these days- that’s where gaming comes into play and there are 2 standout “healthy” startups who I think are doing this very well.
An online check-in system that turns healthy eating into a gaming, Foodzy has been covered by Fast Company in July and their new mobile app was recently covered by TechCrunch this morning. By introducing game and social elements in your eating habits, Foodzy encourages peoples to maintain a healthy lifestyle over long term, and bring back the fun in enjoying food with friends.
As noted by Fast Company “Sure, there are other apps out there that track your calories, and Weight Watchers has been gamifiying watching what you eat since before the Internet existed. What might set Foodzy apart, other than it’s cute Web 2.0 design, is twofold: the social connections and the crowdsourced database of food items.”
Foodzy is not pitching themselves as a weight-loss site. The app makes this more fun than other food tracking apps by giving calories a fun new name (bits. 1= 20 calories) and earning badges for certain good foods or fun eating habits. An upgrade to Foodzy Pro ($15 month) gives you access to the mobile app and allows you to start a personal diet plan that advises you how many bits you should eat per day if you want to lose, gain or keep your weight and offers a personalized dashboard to analyze your food habits.
Note to readers: the online system is currently set up in height (cm) and weight (kg) I had to bust out my calculator for this. (side effect from having an Amsterdam origin for the startup) 1 Inch = 2.54 Centimeters
lbs / 2.2 = kilograms
Foodzy currently has a database of 90,000 foods, for different countries. This is still very new, it was just released to the public in July so only time and traction will tell, but I like the idea behind it. I see a lot of marketing opportunity for additional monetization through brand/product sponsorships that all ties back to indirect brand loyalty. I also personally wish someone would create this for the gluten intolerant/food allergy community. Huge opportunity there!
Certain social wellness gaming programs such as DailyFeats takes these measures into consideration through their mantra of “Doing good should be rewarding”; DailyFeats guides you in doing small but significant actions — or “feats” — that add up to big change. Along the way, you earn points, share with friends, and treat yourself to real-life rewards, motivating you to go do good — every day for health and happiness.
Whenever someone has completed a meaningful, positive action — like enjoying a piece of fresh fruit, tutoring a kid, or taking a brisk walk after a stressful day –they can check in that feat or accept a challenge which is a group of feats that person can plan to accomplish over a period of time. Users will earn points to redeem for discounts at neighborhood businesses or savings from national brands. DailyFeats has most recently partnered with MTV, Monster.com, NationalHealthData.gov, Cigna and Charity: Water.
Go on, earn yourself a healthy badge
Health is something we ALL take seriously; it’s part of our everyday. I think those in the health and wellness arena, including the government and health plans, can learn a lot from the consumer realm of social gamification. As I stated earlier, when it comes to marketing anything, a product or a service, your biggest competition is what and how the rest of the world is accustomed to responding and actively participating in something; know the drivers whether it be marketing effort or support program.
Incentivizing positive behavioral change through utilization of gaming mechanics as the core structure within marketing ideas and personalized support programs definitely has some relevant and worthwhile points to go after.
I’m looking forward to honing my planning skills by attending the Planning-ness Conference 2012 this May with one of my favorite colleagues/friends. It’s a conference for creative thinkers and explorers that is focused on “doing”, not talking. I have waxed on about the T-Shaped skills that I think all strategists should have: the ability to think and do; what I love about this conference is that each of the sessions has a learning component where you are taught a new skill or way to approach a problem, and a doing component where you put it all into action.
Hexadecimal converter of life. Visual enthusiast. Storyteller. 
