Hot For Features
Adaptive Path talks about features, simplexity, and everything in-between:
"Instead of the engineering specs, design and marketing have to work together to figure out what the story of the product is, how all the features fit together into a unified product that can be sold and enjoyed. We don’t need to sell simplicity any more than we should sell complexity. We need to sell–and design–products that are useful, usable, and desirable. And that customers perceive as all those things (that’s where marketing comes in)."
Aesthetic Aspirations
Rothacker Reviews provides some interesting insights around appreciating creativity and design in an environment that might not share the same appreciations:
"There are no human beings that I work with or acquaintances that I have in the physical world who share my love and appreciation for design, the written word in the world of business, the art of communicating messages, the need to move beyond status-quo, hamster-wheel, business as usual, the incredibly vibrant and stimulating work philosophies of younger generations and what they are contributing today and this aching need to move with fluidity in a world not constrained by judgment-by-looks, suits and ivory towers."
How To Succeed in Second Life
Advertising Age sings the praises of Coke's latest effort in Second Life:
"Joseph Jaffe, president-chief interrupter of Crayon, the firm leading Coke into Second Life, said the soda giant has already learned from its predecessors. "Instead of big splash followed by fizzle, we plan to start small and build momentum," he said. "We just decided to join a conversation already in process."
5 Things I've Learned as a Corporate Blogger
Matthew T. Grant over at the Aquent Talent Blog shares some of his findings from authoring a corporate blog:
"1. Just Do It
When I was asked to launch a blog for Aquent, I spent a lot of time hemming and hawing about what exact approach to take. Then, one day I was simply told, "The new website is launching in two weeks and there's going to be a link to the blog on it." I just had to do it. 100+ posts later, I'm still doing it and have not yet been fired (to my knowledge)."
Should Microsoft Sell Avenue A/Razorfish?
Dave Pasternack thinks they should:
"Nothing in Microsoft's history indicates that it wants to be in the position of owning an ad agency. The problem it faces, and it's not a small one, is the conflict of interest that occurs when an agency is both a rep and a seller of media. In the ad world, this is the biggest no-no that exists, and it's one that Microsoft will find it impossible to step around."
"I am highly doubtful that Microsoft will hang onto Avenue A/Razorfish, because of the conflict of interest that is inherent in such a merger. As I've indicated, Microsoft's interest is in controlling access to the tools required to execute next-generation digital advertising, not in the agency business. But it is also possible that Microsoft will take advantage of the fact that it now owns a stable of very talented people to expose them to its new tool set and effectively turn them into Silverlight evangelists. Being able to mobilize such a group to create cutting-edge, cross-platform commercials would create a critical mass for Microsoft's tools, a requisite for market success. Whether Avenue A/Razorfish's staff can be convinced to lay aside their Macs, Photoshop, and Flash and become adept at creating digital masterpieces in Silverlight is a cultural, not an operational issue, but creating this kind of creative vanguard would be very helpful to Microsoft as it attempts to sell the IPTV solution to brand advertisers in the next few years."
In regards to the part about A/Razorfish's staff trading Flash, Photoshop and Macs for Microsoft tools: that could be a very tough sell (yes, it's mostly cultural vs. operational and cultural changes as we all know are the most difficult to pull off). But that's assuming Microsoft intends to change the culture or tools (maybe they won't--if they don't sell 'em off).
