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I’ll take PotPourri for $400, Alex
0January 1, 2007 by Colin
Survey bias, pimping to kids, GTD, music promo and local journalism – talk about a potpourri of topics!
“What it takes to be a [local] journalist” – from the Boston [Lincolnshire] Standard.
Fantastic Getting Things Done templates for the Moleskine notebook.
Cultural and spatial bias could be affecting your survey results – if you use a Likert scale (disagree to agree) – reports new research summarized by the BPS Research Digest.
“Selling to aspirational six year olds” – h/t to Trevor Cook
“Kids aspire to be older than they are at whatever age because, early in life, they recognize their position on the lower rungs of the social ladder. Hence retailers, like Borders, design spaces that encode both aspiration to older, more autonomous identities and distance from younger, undesirable selves.
Any savvy package designer knows that a child’s product, if it is to have any chance on the market, must appear to appeal to the age group just older than the intended end-user. Something intended for a six-year-old boy will probably not do well if a six-year-old is pictured on it—better an eight-year-old.
Making such appeals directly to a child is, historically speaking, new and revolutionary. The recognition and appeasement of the child’s point of view in commercial contexts began in the ’30s and marked a change not only in marketing and merchandising, but in parent-child relations as well. The child’s view now must be acknowledged, addressed and satisfied in many arenas of social life. For a parent to do otherwise is to set themselves up as morally suspect.” (In These Times)
How brand communicators can learn from the music industry – h/t and further discussion at Get Shouty.
[tags] Moleskine, GTD, mGTD, productivity, survey, Likert scale, youth marketing, public opinion research [/tags]
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Third Monday Social Media Meetup Tonight
0September 25, 2006 by Colin
A reminder for Ottawa-bound communicators: tonight’s the inaugural Third Monday social media meetup – featuring Shel Israel. And one of these days I’ll make it to the Throng get-together in Toronto.
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The Back of Napkin Diagram as Communications Tool
0August 2, 2006 by Colin
I carry around a Moleskine notebook for two reasons: because I’m pretentious, and because I like drawing pictures. At the very least, I like waving my hands around while speaking, trying to communicate the visual idea map that is plainly obvious to my eyes – but often unseen by my colleagues. Dave Gray of XPLANE fame spoke to Sean Wise about how to better communicate your fundamental business concepts – in this case focusing on the development of a back of napkin diagram (BoND) to help entrepreneurs sell their ideas to venture capitalists.
” … A good BoND can also assist with employee recruitment, team alignment, sales and technology build outs. [venture capitalist Rick] Segal comments, that “As the prospective client, employee, or VC engages, both parties can use the drawing as a central reference point. It’s a very useful tool that is often overlooked in favour of mountains of text laden painful power point slides.” …
“Visual diagrams can serve as a powerful ‘platform for conversations.’ They help people focus their attention and understand new ideas better and faster. Better understanding leads to better decisions, which leads to better business results,” said [Dave] Gray.” (Globe and Mail)
At the very least, any communicator with an inclination towards visual thinking should start off by diagramming their problem and possible solutions – I absolutely detest strategies that are clearly derived from a linear train of thought first detailed in a series of PowerPoint slides. If you frame your problem using a linear technology, usually, you’ll come up with a linear argument. That will mask the uncertainties and mixed priorities communicators often face – on their issues, from their management, from their clients and certainly from the public.
In speaking to Wise, Gray set out the steps for working through your first back of napkin diagram:
1. First, be sure you are solving the right problem. … The best way to define a communication problem is to find the question you want to answer with the communication. Define communications goals as a question that the diagram will answer. …
2. Don’t worry about your drawing skills. If you know the subject, just draw what you know. …
3. Think about your story. … Remember, the BoND’s first job is to support a story, and help you have meaningful conversations on a subject you care about. If any part of the picture doesn’t support your story, maybe it doesn’t belong.
4. Minimize the number of elements. Research shows that people construct mental models in very predictable ways. When asked to diagram a system, the average person uses around six or seven visual elements to support their story. …
5. Edit ruthlessly, using your goal as a filter. …
6. Once you have a visual diagram that you like, ask yourself, “Is it replicable?” The answer is yes if: You can draw it on a whiteboard and tell the story in 10 minutes or less; You can teach someone else to draw the picture and tell the story.
7. Once you have something you like, test it on everyone you can — friends, family, your spouse, etc. …
8. Revise and update the BoND often — like a good relationship or a good wine, it will only improve over time. …” (Globe and Mail)Look to the whole article for more detail or take a look at the XPLANE website.
You could do worse than subscribe to the two aggregate blogs produced by XPLANE: Xblog, which deals with information design issues, and Bblog, which deals with business issues. Or even Dave Gray’s blog.
Technorati: XPLANE idea map visualisation
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Getting a blog past corporate and legal
1July 2, 2006 by Colin
More and more corporate communicators are attending social media conferences – but the number of corporate blogs doesn’t seem to be growing.
Boris Mann over at Bryght has some hints to help sneak blogging onto your corporate servers:
” … there was no way that legal would allow the type of real-time, unconstrained interaction that tends to typify blogging today. I tried to brainstorm different ways of connecting with an enthusiast community without actually blogging. And so, a question blog. The basic concept is as follows:
• The community can post questions to a central site (e.g. ask.domain.com).
• Other community members can digg-style vote for questions to help select which ones should be answered first.
• A question moderator sifts through the highest rated questions and finds the appropriate internal folks to route the questions to.
• The internal people answer the questions, which then get routed to legal for review and approval.
• Any changes and updates are bounced back and forth with legal, until an approved version is agreed on
• The answer is posted (which of course goes into an RSS feed plus email notification); maybe the original submitter gets a prize of some kind.
• Key point: the posted answer clearly lists the name of the employee, good for tracking down at live events and conferences.” (Boris Mann)
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Long tail marketing: it’s not about the money, it’s about the idea
0May 26, 2006 by Colin
Roger Martin, business professor and consultant, speaks to the intersection of design and strategic planning – with surprising insight for marketers and communicators grappling with the rigour and market targeting demanded by a “long tail” economy:
DL: They were hired to produce the marketing material?
RM: Right, but the company was bankrupt and could hardly afford to spend anything. The dilemma for Barb and Bob was that this property would only appeal to somebody rich, with a certain kind of sensibility. If they produced a cheap brochure to save money, it wouldn’t be effective, because the only kind of people who would consider buying a property like this would be put off by a cheap-looking brochure. So they had a dilemma, but instead of saying, “Oh My God, we can’t do it, give us triple the production budget”, they said, “Oh, this is kind of cool.”
After thinking about the challenge for awhile, they realized that this wasn’t a broad-based marketing campaign, as there weren’t many people interested in a property like this. So they didn’t think of the usual four-color press run of 10,000 brochures – instead only 50 or 75 would suffice. And that insight transported them into the handmade category. They came up with the concept of an old photo album that your parents might have had at their cottage, with covers made out of birch bark and laced together with a leather thong. They made high-quality color photocopies of actual photos, and used those old-fashioned black corner pieces to mount them. They even decorated the cover with a real wild bird feather. The thing looked fantastic. They ended up winning all sorts of awards for it, and it came in perfectly on budget. Bob was all excited about how he had found the right feather and all these things.
To me that was the incredible a-ha moment, which is that Bob and Barb wouldn’t have enjoyed it half as much if the clients had released the constraints. What made it so cool was the tough constraints and the need for coming up with some kind of creative resolution that was out-of-the box, something completely different that nobody else would have thought of.
DL: So it’s a completely different point of view [from business thinking] in terms of the approach to problem solving.
RM: Yes, but even one step before problem solving – the approach to the entire task, which is, “I’m not going to get bummed out by the constraints; I’m going to get invigorated!”
From an interview conducted on the fringes of the Strategy06 Conference.
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Big pharma custom-orders medical journal articles?
0December 14, 2005 by Colin
Nice piece in the WSJ yesterday on the relationships between big pharma companies, researchers, medical writers and medical journals. Turns out scientists (and the big pharma companies that sponsor their research) sometimes turn to specialist medical writers to actually produce papers to be published in distinguished journals.
That isn’t much of a surprise to us communications professionals, who are called upon to ghostwrite materials everyday.
Luckily for us, the Pittsburg Post-Gazette ran most of the article today.
The WSJ rightly questions the relationship between pharma marketers, medical writers and academic researchers who seem too preoccupied to thoroughly vet a ghost-written article. To me, it’s not the process of preparing the document that seems suspicious: it’s the apparent willingness of participants to bow to big pharma’s marketing needs.
Some excerpts from the documents used to develop the reporting are avaliable at WSJ/OnlineToday.
BTW – the American Medical Writer Association seems to be torn about its own nomenclature :the AMWA Code of Ethics refers to biomedical communicators, not medical writers. I understand there may be a legitimate distinction between the terms, but I always thought a biomedical communicator is what Dr. Bones used when treating the crew of the old Star Trek.
Technorati: pharma medical writer ethics medical research
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Government Spokesperson: “That wasn’t prevarication – it was mithering!”
0October 19, 2005 by Colin
James Rubin, the former State Department spokesperson, spoke to the Guardian about his new program on James Murdoch’s Sky News, and his experience as a government spokesperson. He …
“…still believes the demands of 24-[hour] news can be distorting. “If government spokesmen don’t immediately comment, it does not mean that they are ‘taken by surprise’ or ‘caught off balance’”. The situation required him to remind reporters of that: “My job was to obtain the best possible coverage of the government by holding journalists accountable.”
“… “Ninety-five per cent of my day was spent figuring out how to encourage reticent officials to let me say as much as possible,” he says, adding: “Most of what I did each day was explaining, analysing and persuading – not spinning, doing soundbites and intimidating journalists.”
On that note, I’ll point you to my post for the Global PR Blog Week 2.0: The complexities of government blogging in a dynamic policy environment.
Here’s just a tease:
“If transparency, speed and forthright dialogue are the hallmarks of the Cluetrain economy, some may argue that government communicators have neither a clue nor a train schedule.”
Here’s the government blogging post in another format.
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Academic dons and RSS
0August 4, 2005 by Colin
Here’s a question for you corporate communicators still sending stuff out by fax: if the freakin’ History Workshop Journal can have an RSS feed, why can’t your corporate web site do the same?
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Blogging as a component of a communications strategy
0March 24, 2005 by Colin
As more and more PR firms develop blogging “practices” and push blogging programs, I have to wonder: when we’re peddling the flavour of the month, are we taking into consideration the other entrees in the meal?
Are we pushing adoption of a tool that, while cool to communicators, does not fit well with our client’s existing communications strategy?
Are we taking the initiative to pitch them on an integrated communications strategy, including blogs, or just the new tool?
Even more importantly, are we pitching blogs as a cure-all, even though the technology may not be an appropriate channel to reach their customers, suppliers or stakeholders?
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Putting words into politician’s mouths
0December 9, 2004 by Colin
Bit of a tempest in a teapot during the Tuesday sitting of Canada’s Senate. One enterprising Tory Senator noticed that some of his Liberal colleagues had read speeches in to the Senate support of legislation that were nearly identical to speeches previously read in the House of Commons – a transgression of Senate rules.
A short debate ensued about creativity and propriety ensued, but I found this excerpt from Senator Anne cools‘ argument on the issue interesting:
“There is now arising in many parliamentary quarters great concern about the number of speeches especially canned speeches that are being written by other people for members. It is a huge concern.
I expect, as a member of Parliament and a senator here, that if a senator rises and speaks, he owns that which he is saying in other words, that speech is a product of his or her efforts. We must discern exactly what the parliamentary position is on these practices that have grown like Topsy, where it is immediately evident that those speeches were written in distant places because most often they do not even reflect the language of Parliament. Quite often, the grammatical structure is in the passive tense.
…This is a broad question. It has a larger consequence than we comprehend. What it means is that government, by having thousands of people churning out these speeches, can be making in each chamber many speeches in a day. This means, of course, that the natural proceedings in Parliament are not moving along at a very natural pace.
… I would submit to honourable senators that the government, with all its resources and all its speech writers grinding them out and holding them in cans, can load and weight the system in its favour.” (Senate Hansard)
Hey, all you government communicators! Isn’t it nice to be appreciated?
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CMOs and “surrogate metrics”
0December 1, 2004 by Colin
A joint study on the growing role of chief marketing officers, conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton and the Association of National Advertisers, doesn’t exactly break new ground. It is, however, a good summary piece, and has a really catchy title:”Making the Perfect Marketer.”
I was intrigued by their use of the term “surrogate metrics” to examine how marketers (and by extension, communicators) try to wedge their (relatively) thin performance measurements onto shelves full of quant measurements produced by operational divisions.
“Although these forms of measurement may be valid to the tasks at hand, we surmise they have not been adequately explained and “sold in” to other senior executives, who typically come from backgrounds with different rigors. Among marketers themselves, there is a lingering, if fading, fear that too much “science” might dampen the “art” of marketing.
Some marketing chiefs value unbridled creativity and innovation over multivariate regression models that isolate the incremental consumption delivered by a new program or ad execution. Although this communication gap involving metrics is understandable, given the novelty of the CMO position relative to other officer positions, it appears to be contributing to the diminished status of CMOs in many companies.”
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Scientists are sentitive people!
0October 21, 2004 by Colin
While some scientists may be lacking people skills, a stained labcoat and corrective lenses should not prompt PR folk to discount their work and strongly-held positions when developing a pitch and communications materials.
Some scientists working for one US government agency have begun to speak out about what they see as unwarranted revisions and spin by senior officials and public affairs staffers:
“Political appointees have regularly revised news releases on climate from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, altering headlines and opening paragraphs to play down the continuing global warming trend.
The changes are often subtle, but they consistently shift the meaning of statements away from a sense that things are growing warmer in unusual ways.
The pattern has appeared in reports from other agencies as well.
Several sets of drafts and final press releases from NOAA on temperature trends were provided to The Times by government employees who said they were dismayed by the practice.
On Aug. 14, 2003, a news release summarizing July temperature patterns began as a draft with this headline: “NOAA reports record and near-record July heat in the West, cooler than average in the East, global temperature much warmer than average.”
When it emerged from NOAA headquarters, it read: “NOAA reports cooler, wetter than average in the East, hot in the West.” (NYT)
Now, in this case dedicated scientists believe their findings are being undersold and misidentified. Usually, they find the media is too eager to zoom in on the sensational aspects of otherwise serious public interest science – like the study If You Drop It, Should You Eat It? Scientists Weigh In on the 5-Second Rule or An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces.
Some scientists, however, see popular reknown as key to communicating their findings and their personal agendas. Think David Suzuki or Stephen Hawking – people who developed a personal brand while pursuing scientific goals. For others, popularity is a product of their academic strengths – their professional research and publication output is directly reflected in their Googlerank.
As for those communicators and scientists who need help translating esoteric concepts into popular analogies? Earlier this year, the Pfizer Journal (sure, a bit of self-interest for the firm there, but still interesting) ran an entire issue examining The Story of Science: Health Care and the Media
Up here in Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council has prepared a very useful primer: Communicating Science to the Public: A Handbook for Researchers
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Basic Principles for Crisis Communications
0July 15, 2004 by Colin
This is my entry for the Global PR Blog Week, running through tomorrow.
Whether the phones are ringing, camera trucks are showing up at a worksite, union leadership is speaking at a public hearing, or a regulator is issuing safety warnings about your product, it’s pretty clear you’ve got a crisis.
Instead of days or weeks, you’ve got minutes to map out how your organization will respond. You have to demonstrate awareness of the issue, empathize with the community and possible victims, appear knowledgeable to stakeholders, and prepare for detailed questioning from the board, Wall Street analysts, regulators, politicians and the public.
Ideally, you will have already tackled your toughest challenge: preparing your leadership for the glare of the local, national or international spotlight. In some industries, some tough media training will suffice. In others, CEOs, Presidents, General Managers and Plant Managers may be called upon to explain safety or health consequences of an accident clearly and competently.
The key to the success of this dialogue is a corporate culture that understands the benefits of risk communications. It’s a field of study that emphasizes transparency, information sharing, honest consultation processes and accountability.
Effective risk communications forces your organization to identify possible threats to its business, clients, workers, neighbours and other stakeholders – and to work with these groups in developing a shared response. It’s an ongoing process – more effective than a stale binder on a shelf, and more reassuring than a troubleshooter flown in when the first reporter calls.
keep reading »
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Typography, advertising and favoured clients
0May 18, 2004 by Colin
Typographica has run a design nugget that hits upon a pet peeve of mine: the tendency of graphic designers and ad agencies to run with tried, true and often boring formats and designs.
Their interview with Phil Martin, the designer of a number of fresh variations on older typefaces, prompted this comment about a favoured client.
… Its too Hot to cook is as nice a design as I have ever done. It was an ad I did for Dallas Power & Light. Oh, what memories. Every time I had a new face ready, it would become the look of my next DP&L ad. It gave Martin Studios a city-wide showing of a look you could get only by hiring Martin Studios …[There's] somebody else to thank for helping me become a type designer: Ray Ward, the DP&L company spokesman and ad man, gave me free range to give the ads any look I chose. [One of Martin's sample books] shows ten DP&L graphics!
I admit many corporate communicators may not have the leeway to allow this sort of creative input. Branding guides and corporate messaging are an important part of defining and sustaining a corporate identity. Graphic designers, however, are still an important part of the creative process – and if they don’t volunteer new ideas on an old theme, should be pushed and prodded to earn their creative premium.
Otherwise, I can use the corporate PowerPoint template and Photoshop to set up my new ad.
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Dan Aykroyd: Imaginary musings about blogging
0May 14, 2004 by Colin
I had the opportunity to conduct an imaginary interview with Dan Aykroyd, the Canadian actor, about the expansion of the blogosphere. The questions are real: the answers are taken from Aykroyds movies. Footnotes are at the bottom.
Q: The media environment has experienced fundamental change since you first appeared on Saturday Night Live in the 70s. Consumers and corporations have embraced the technological and cultural implications of innovations like satellite TV, cable and the WWW. Now, were grappling with how thin and rich media apps may change our world. What are your thoughts?
A: [Its] part of the same system that NASA used when they faked the Apollo moon landings. Yeah, the astronauts broadcast around the world from a soundstage at Norton Airforce Base in San Bernadino, California. So it worked for them, shouldn’t give us too many problems. (1)
Q: Corporate communicators are increasingly interested in how blogging can help them reach out to their stakeholder groups. Still, they have problems securing buy-in from senior management, and hold nagging concerns about shifting from a comfortable communication system based in hierarchy and control to an evolving system that depends upon transparency and responsiveness by all participants. Do you think these growing pains will continue?
A: You know, it just occurred to me, we haven’t had a completely successful test of this equipment. No sense worrying about it now. (2)
Q: Well, its becoming evident that blog technology will have to find a common ground if it is to crossover into mainstream acceptance. There are a number of independent delivery standards, and several different publishing platforms. Do you think the general public is ready to embrace, or even understand, an environment like this?
A: No! Nobody ever made them like this! The architect was either a certified genius or an aesthetic wacko! (2)
Q: Do you think the blogging community will be able to guide the technology to a workable and publicly palatable solution, or will commercial pressures force the technical specialists to find an acceptable, but average, consumer application?
A: I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities. We didn’t have to produce anything! You’ve never been out of college. You don’t know what it’s like out there. I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results. (2)
Q: But how are we supposed to find that one magical app the one that allows expands the blogging universe to welcome corporate, community and personal bloggers with lesser levels of technical expertise? I suppose the new Blogger is one tool especially if combined with the new Gmail service but there always seem to be concerns about security and control. Even Google found that Orkut had been hacked. Have you found security a challenge?
A: Well I broke it with this Drogens Decoder Wheel I found it in a box of, uh Lucky Charms. (3)
Q: Now that Google is going public, they will have the resources to pursue people who crack their security measures or criticize their privacy policies. Doesnt this worry you?
A: No, they don’t got my address, I falsified my renewal. I put down 1060 West Addison. (4)
Q: Hmm. Lets get back on track. I still think real public acceptance of the blogosphere will only come if there is a concerted effort by bloggers and technical experts from across the blogging community to popularize the technology and develop practical applications.
A: Well… I got a few leads … I got some phone numbers but… I mean… how many of them wrote or visited you, huh? (4)
Q: You know, I think youre not really much of an expert in this area.
A: I was going to do your family a favor and hookup the Disney Channel for free. Well, forget it. (3)
Q: Many journalists continue to argue that blogs are not a challenge to their methods, and do not pose a threat to their institutions. They seem to be clinging to their traditions and their professional biases, in the face of obvious change and evolution in popular communication. What do you think?
A: I remember Revelation 7:12. And I looked, as he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became as black as sackcloth. And the moon became as blood.
Every ancient religion has its own myth about the end of the world. (2)
Q: You know, its probably not a good career move to mock the media so brutally.
A: For once I’m completely in agreement Do you know what those things can do? Suck the paint off your house and give your family a permanent orange afro. (3)
Q: Thank you for your time, Dan.
A: Youre welcome … you ignorant slut.
(1) Sneakers
(2) Ghostbusters
(3) Spies Like Us
(4) Blues Brothers
Canuckflack
… Colin McKay has some thoughts about design, data, management, government and oddities … written in Canada!
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Blood Stains from the slaine Monks of Lindisfarne in the Viking attack of 793AD. Folios 191v and 192r of the Lindisfarne Gospels - written and illuminated by the Anglo-Saxon Bishop Eadfrith in 698AD.
Liber generationis Jesu Christi
“Lo, it is nearly 350 years that we and our fathers have inhabited this most lovely land, and never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor was it thought that such an inroad from the sea could be made. Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples.”
Alcuin, Letter to Ethelred, King of Northumbria
Images: British Library
I had a Brooks Brothers 15 1/2 - 35 shirt and we used its front pocket to determine when the Pilot design was “pocket sized” - Joel Jewitt, discussing the invention of the Palm Pilot
http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130408043926-7298-early-employees-joel-jewitt-palm
Before I discovered the Internet
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