Mad. . .Emotions

In October of 2005 in Toronto I attended one of the most phenomenal conferences ever. It was called Creative Places + Spaces - Risk Revolution.

Forty eight hours that I still reminisce about almost 5 years later.

I could easily write a book about the event but in the interest of time I'll give you the abbreviated version. Actually, let me focus on one particular thing.

I was in one of the workshops when a gentlemen who did product development and business innovation said this - "Want people to pay attention to you - appeal to two things: their emotions and their economics."

Now the notion of appealing to people's economics I got. Show them how they could save money or show how their money will be 'well spent' and you were good. We've been doing this for the past 50 years. Showing how to get more 'bang for the buck.' Now the emotional part of that statement was a trickier one to look at.

When's the last time you ever heard anyone say 'give more emotions get more dollars'. Never. The kicker is that if you can make a real connection between human emotions and your product or service then you're golden.

In today's market people mostly want to jump on the 'shiny new objects' train. They feel like they need to stay up on technology or technology will pass them by (i.e. everyone under the sun wants to jump into the 'social media' drag race). The problem isn't wanting to get down with social media. The problem is that many people are just taking their same old products and slapping a Facbook, Linkedin, or Twitter label on them. Their product is offering no real value and isn't creating any real connection to their customers.

Ladies and gentlemen its not about the tools or technology that we use (they change all the time). Its about the emotional connection that the customer has with the product. Its about knowing and understanding what people need, want or desire. If you're not quite sure how to put your finger on it, Don Draper might be able to give you a hand. . .

The Carousel . . .

Bolex (fake) Networking

How many of you have been sitting with a friend or colleague in a 'conversation' and their blackberry is constantly "beeping" with a new text or tweet from god knows who and they over and over again interrupt the conversation with you so they can respond to the message?

Everyone's hands should go up.

At this moment no real engagement is happening. No real conversation is taking place. No real relationship building is happening.

Now why does this even matter? The reason because in life all that matters at the end of the day is the relationships we have that are strong, solid and noteworthy.

If an exciting thought pops into your head how does that idea become great and that great idea become phenomenal: by staying away from the 'blackberry effect' and by getting the idea into the hands of people who want to build strong relationships with one another and then push that idea into the market-sphere. This pretty much is the first part of the recipe to building a long lasting and successful business.

Now my issue is this: there are 1.3 million (not a scientifically researched number) social media gurus saying get on or get left! The social media train is leaving the station. Ride with us to the promise land where business can take advantage of the new media landscape! Well I'll be the first one to say I LOVE Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, etc, etc. But this is where I have an issue. Everyone is a "how to get followers expert" but who is an expert on communicating why they should pay you any attention, then why they should take that next step and follow you and then what's the value to the follower (if anyone comes across an article, blog post or rant on this, please send it my way...). Very few people are talking about if there is any value behind the Tweets or the Facebook page comments (and how this can bring an upswing to your business). Now on this particular issue I'm going to have to side with my boy Seth. . .

The power in blogging

I could go on for days about the value I have personally received from blogging over the last 2+ years (and I probably will in the near future) but for now Seth and Tom speak to it excellently.  Enjoy!

La vida loca del Futbol!

Having grown up on hip hop (respect to b-boys!) and also being a Capoeirista myself I thought this video was bad ass!  The track rocks, the editing is incredible and the energy is high octane. Big ups Nike Futbol! 

"Hard-Edge, Erotic Pop meets Tank Girl"

The above description is how Hugh MacLeod describes the work of Hazel Dooney - one of the most successfully rebellious Australian artists who has defined commercial success on her own terms. Now once again Hugh puts up a great blog post (which isn't unusual for him). On numerous occasions I find that my ideas and his overlap - which I find very cool.

About a week ago he conducted an interview with Hazel, in which he asked 10 questions about her art and her work and the conversation that ensued was intriguing to say the least.

What I found fascinating about Hazel is how she has developed her own unique (and radically different) approach to how she markets her work and how she markets herself as an artist. With one of his earlier questions Hugh asks about her decision to bag and circumvent the traditional gallery route by selling her work to collectors online. Her response was this:

Four years ago, I decided to quit the two highly regarded galleries in Sydney and Melbourne that were then representing my work. We had a dispute over how they wanted to position me and (believe it or not) constrain my prices. I found some very smart people in technology and business who were prepared to help me figure out a way to manage myself – not just marketing and selling my work but creating an infrastructure to manage every aspect of the business of it, from identifying and communicating with individual collectors and producing my own shows to expanding my online presence and exploiting tools such as social networks and email to develop a wider interest in my work and me. Since then, the value of my work has increased to five, maybe ten, times what it was five years ago, and 15 times what it was a decade ago and my career has radically expanded – as has my collector base.

I love it! Convergence in Australia - business meets technology meets culture!

Furthermore what I really find interesting is the way in which she is blurring the lines between art, advertisement and entertainment media. She's definitely fearless and pushing the business of art into new realms.

To wrap up the interview Hugh asked her how she sees her work evolving in the future. She says that "it's a commitment to a different way of working, both personally and professionally. And it'll evolve with the ideas within the work. In the end, that's all it's about."

As I read the whole interview I kept going back in my mind to the Warhol-ism post I wrote a few months back where I posed the question: how do we marry the ideas of commercialism and culture (like Andy did so well in the 60's, 70's and 80's) and creatively interpret his process for the 21st century?  Well I believe Hazel is one very interesting  example of this. So now with her on the radar I'll continue to seek more intriguing offspring of today's culture and commerce.