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).
Recent Comments