Bop a Rep

Wish they'd had this back when I was fielding scores of calls every week from cliche-spouting media reps--a great new game on the Web, "Upfront."

The media buyer starts the game with a supply of staplers, bagels, and other projectiles which are pelted at the virtual reps as they pop up from behind desks and filing cabinets--mouthing their usual lines like, "'We'd like to talk to you about out-of-the-box ideas' and "creating new paradigms," or "building long-term relationships."

The game was developed and is offered by G4, the media network for gamers. Is this a great marketing ploy or what? Looks like they've got some "out-of-the-box" types over there.

Egads

I'm with you Tom. It won't be "blogads" that help this happen. But there is something to the regional flavor emerging in some blogging pockets--the Boston bloggers, and some on the west coast as examples. They would be my go-to source if I lived in those areas and needed to find out how reliable a business was, or if I were traveling to the area and wanted to know the best hotel for my family. But as I'm finding out now, I'd be just as likely to pick up the phone and call one of them, because I it seems that I'm talking to at least one blogger--who have actually ceased being "bloggers" to me and have crossed the chasm to "friendship" -- every week.

Ah, for another post, another time.

j.

Blogads

The article is called "Making a Living from Blogging," and it offers some stimulating thoughts. But this seems a bit much:

"Eventually, a sufficient density of local blogs could make Blogads an effective tool for selling local goods and services."

Sing this with me...

The EFF parody 'The Mickey Mouse Club' to fight the CBDTPA.
Cory explains what parody is.

The phrases 'Mickey Mouse Copy Protection' and 'Mickey Mouse Computer' need to enter the language in this context - as in 'Do you want a Mickey Mouse computer that stops you making music?'

WSJ.com - Technology

WSJ.com - Technology
Julie Strietelmeier suddenly has a bunch of new suitors.

The 37-year-old, who operates a Web site on electronic gadgets as a hobby, recently was courted by Sharp Electronics Corp., which paid her way to California for the launch of its new hand-held computer. Microsoft Corp. also vied for Ms. Strietelmeier's attention by paying for a trip to Seattle so she could attend a shindig on its Pocket PC hand-held software. Palm Inc. has invited her to attend gatherings and to join an exclusive mailing list. And Handspring Inc. has offered to lend her an assortment of its products.

"It's quite flattering," says Ms. Strietelmeier, a software programmer who runs her Web site, the Gadgeteer (www.the-gadgeteer.com) at nights out of her home in Columbus, Ind. "Of course I like it," she says of the attention. "Who wouldn't?"

With tough times in Silicon Valley, many makers of hand-held devices, facing cuts in their marketing and advertising budgets, are trying to woo people like Ms. Strietelmeier, one of about 50 around the country known by the industry as "influencers."

This is almost Gonzo, but it still has a bit too much of broadcast feel to it for me. Encouraging sign though.

Landing in the Zone of Gonzo Politics

Excuse my flailings as I try to figure out where this snippet of text will land, or even it is lands in the Gonzo Politics thread. Funnily enough, we're working with a small team of people in Ireland, trying to set up and run a wireless blogging network for a series of conferences in the autumn. If our work is successful, we will be able to reduce mailing list chaos by implementing a more coherent flow of blogged comments.

Gonzo Politics

Eric - what you need is to start a conversation. Gather up email addresses at your meeting, and start a mailing list (topica.com makes this fairly easy).

You'll need to marshall it,but hopefully the conversation will get going.

Once you have a conversation, pick some issues, and set up a blog for each one. Invite people to join in. Escalate good postings from the chaos of the email list to the semi-permanace of the blog.

None of this will work though, unless your group contains people who can write (and think) clearly; finding them will be the hard part.

If you do find them, tell us about them, and if we like them, we'll tell our friends. It worked for Andrew...

I can't speak for Jeneane as to why , but you can comment here, but you need to do it in front of the class, on the main thread. It stops the conversation fragmenting. Layers of comments are only really needed with a much bigger group (cf slashdot, boingboing, metafilter). Doing it this way helps focus the discussion (IMO), as one is more likely to reflect before posting, thus getting closer to the ideal writing/reading time ratio.

I've been wondering about the implications of gonzo for politics. Current politics, although different in certain specific aspects, still uses primarily a broadcast model. The primary goal of which is to sell their product (candidate) by way of advertising (TV spots; yard signs; personal appearances). They use "focus groups", much of which has watered down the discourse to the least common demoninator of what they think we are thinking, which leads to fucking boredom. And I think that is really why the kids don't vote (not to mention us old kids). It is the same reason that we'd rather get online and chat than read a press release. Ugh. Hell, I'd rather get a molar pulled than read a press release!

Anyway, the reason for blogging this, really is to get some feedback. I'm looking to organize a forum for progressive groups in Ohio to look at the Internet and how it can be used to better support their causes. I heard recently in a meeting of progressive types the familiar lines: "We started a website, but nobody came." "We have an email link, but nobody uses it." "The Internet is not the silver bullet for political activism." To which I said, "Horseshit. It Is! You're just not using it right yet." OK, so that's what I wanted to say. I chickened out. Bock Bock!

So while sitting there thinking about organizing a forum (mostly due to the "Internet doesn't work" comments), I look down at my copy of Gonzo Marketing and start thinking about how it applies to politics. What are your thoughts?

I've also been wondering why we can't comment on entries here...

I guess there was a problem with the blogspot server...needed to republish. Done.

Gonzo Humanitarianism and Environmentalism

Wow. Thanks for the kudos, folks. I am seriously happy to be blogging with you guys. I hope to learn, grow, teach, and laugh a great deal as I continue to meet more people with the cluetrain spirit. I am in the pumped state, Jeneane. The same one I was in for months over Cluetrain. Hell, I even wrote a long polemic and distributed to managers at my old company at an annual meeting (flop). Anyway, thanks. You may come to regret it.

I wanted to blog this because I think it is 1) very interesting, and 2) seems to have a gonzo spirit at first glance:

ThinkCycle - Open Collaborative Design

ThinkCycle is using both open source and collaborative computing theories to work in the real world of design focusing on humanitarian and environmental problems of the world. This is the kind of thing that needs to be replicated. It is focused - giving it a better chance to succeed in terms of interest and participation. It is open - [sarcasm] which makes it a bottom-up process that has been somewhat successfull for a little known operating system [/sarcasm]. And to top it all off, it is designed well and appears to be programmed well as well. Well, well, well. (Just seeing how many times I could say "well". Well! Eight. Not bad.

ThinkCycle. Gonzo at work in the world (OK, open source should get more credit, but it is all the same, really)

Eric's Gold

Let me add my welcome to Eric. We need some fresh blood in here to get things going again. Eric's blood obviously runs true and swift. That was as sharp a take on Gonzo as I've seen.

Let me offer a personal experience of what Eric's talking about:
there's a great CD shop in my neck of the woods-Hear Music. They have about a dozen listening stations throughout the shop, each hooked into eight CD's or so. The stations are grouped into idiosyncratic, intriguing categories by the various employees of the store. In addition, you can take any CD you want to a central listening station and they'll play it for you.

On average, it's about five or six bucks per CD over internet prices. I started to get cold feet the last time I made a multiple purchase there. I calculated how much extra it was costing me over a year's time to do my buying there. Then I thought about the "one-hit wonders" to which Eric refers--all the ones I didn't have to buy because I had had the opportunity to listen to them at this wonderful store (and, yes Eric, there sure are a shitload of these rip-offs out there).

I realized that the money I had saved far outweighed the extra per-CD cost. And I'm so appreciative of this merchant's hip and helpful employees, I wouldn't dream of going there just to listen, only to head home and log on to Amazon.

Obviously, a lot of loyal customers feel the same way. Hear Music has had nothing to fear from the rise of e-commerce. Their greatest period of growth has coincided with the rise of the Web. And the icing on the cake: their dedication to the listening experience of their customers caught the attention of Starbuck's, who in '99 awarded them the contract for creating album mixes for their cafes.

So, yes, Uncle Eric, there's gold in them thar' Gonzo, customer-up models.

Taking blogging to the streets

Our own boy wonder, Chris Locke was on Marketplace Morning Report this morning, a radio show that captures the earballs of some 2,000,000 listeners (yup, I said two million).

You can listen to the RealAudio stream here or go to the marketplace.org homepage and click on "The Best of Today's Morning Report."

Tess Vigeland was so fascinated with the topic that she extended the segment from something like two minutes to a full six or seven minutes.

We owe it to the man. Blog the hell out of this.

And while I'm at it, Eric, HELLO! I'm SO glad you're here. You sound like I did just after finishing Gonzo. Drink it, breathe it, live it, don't stop, don't quit, write it, love it, hate it, trash it, burn it, reconstruct it, sleep with it, dream with it, sweat it, taste it, create and recreate it, shape it, and take it out--way out. I'm with ya, Les.

Gonzo Latecomer

OK, so I never did buy the fucking book. Even after I kept getting all these inflammatory emails from some jackass whose Topica list I was dumb enough to subscribe to. So I see Gonzo Marketing in the library and I think, "What the hell!", and pile it on my stack of Linux tutorials and Lester Brown's Eco-Economy (couldn't find Natural Capitalism by Amory Lovins - rats). Man am I glad I decided to start with Gonzo (Does anyone else have this problem with books - I read 5 at the same time until I get hooked to one and toss the rest - or am I just mental). Holy shit. What was I thinking. I've read Cluetrain four times now and I was dumb enough not to buy this one sight-unseen. [shakes head in personal disgust]

So while pretending to work today (kidding boss, I was working. I read on lunch hour, er, um half hour), I was reading Gonzo Marketing and making notes (is THAT normal...please tell me that's normal). Do I use too many damned parentheses? (what do you think?). Here is a bit of my notes:

Gonzo Marketing: The question really does come down to quality. It matters much more now. In mass marketing, you could sell inferior junk because your goal was to blast the message (ad) to millions of eyeballs and hook a certain percentage (I'm reminded of the shoveling chum scene in Jaws...not sure why. HOOPER!). With Gonzo Marketing, you can't do that. In fact, you had better make damned sure your shit is great or you will essentially be marketing for your competitors! Napster proved this to the record industry. The old model allowed them to put out 11 shit tracks and 1 hit and sell tons of records. Ever get pissed off after you buy the album with "that one cool song" on it only to discover that one song was all she wrote? Not anymore, Jack. The conversation is real. And it goes a little somthin' like 'dis:

"Dude. Did you download that Slayer album?"
"Yep. All crap but track nine."
"No shit. I'm gonna have to burn a compilation!"

Now imagine that same conversation concerning the latest Tool release:

"Dude. (the kids always say "dude"...maybe we can use that in our personalization) Did you hear the Aenima album?"
"Fucking A. I got 5 tracks off Napster and they all rock!"
"Straight up. I'm gonna have to get that one!"
"No doubt"

See? Now this is precisely what the RIAA and most of the labels just can't get through their copyrighted skulls:

New Economy Rule #1 For Selling Records:
Make an awesome record. Give away the tracks. Sell a bunch or records.

A smart label would have strongly supported Napster and would have employed music enthusiasts (or better yet, set up a site for them) to get online and talk to the kids. I said to. Not at. Because, as Metallica used to say: "What about the kids?!" Wonder what changed their minds?

There's a billion dollar formula for you folks. Just a little tip from your uncle Eric.

Developer, meet Prospect: why don't you two blog a bit?

I'm getting a big Gonzo kick out of Rick Klau's (V.P. of Vertical Markets, Interface Software, Inc.) exchange with Christopher Smith (knowledge management guru with A Very Large Law Firm). This, as they say, is what it's all about, and reinforces Kevin's point below (though I have no idea if either of the companies knows about the boys' blogs - suspect not, in Christopher's case). Blogged a little more here.

They may want to read this

About Macromedia turning its support staff and some developers loose on blogs to nurture and facilitate communities that discuss and support their products. Beautimous.

Help this chap out

PhotoDude (link via Doc) needs help explaining the value proposition of a Gonzo approach to the client asked to forgo shouty branding in favour of discreet support of online communities.

I think this partly misses the point - Chris's examples often involve the company in little more than giving permission to its employees to use their authentic voices in public fora and basking in the reflected glory.

Worth noting here

Just a note on Jack Schoflield's superb piece about Locke in the Guardian, and a few of what are probably many more notices of it: Jeneane, Marek, Doc, David W., and me. The link to Google history supplied by Jeneane is a great example of Google's powers of documentation.

i'm a goober

Gee, Sorry Kevin and Bix. I'm burning the midnight oil as mom/worker/blogger. no wonder. i also joined both of those gang blogs at about the same time and have thus far failed you both as far as participation goes. You're in good company at least--I haven't finished Small Pieces either. Ugh.

So, still, thanks Kevin for fixing the links and any other house cleaning you want to do.

Now, I must sleep, as soon as I finish this latest white paper and press release............ miles to go.............

Umm. thanks

Actually, the SPLJ gang blog was started by B!x - I'm just mouthing off about Nietzsche, philosophy, Ludwig of Bavaria perfume, asynchrony, game theory and thermodynamics.

The Gang blog I tried to start was Nonzero but I couldn't get enough of you to read it...

Admin note too

Let's all give Kevin a big Gonzo yeehaw! Can you tell this joint's gotten a little depressing and empty over the last few months? Yah, I know. As RB's soul goes, so goes RGE. While the faithful few continue with great conversation, the blog ain't what it used to be. It's got me missing Shirkey, and that's never good.

We gotta refresh the links, list some new blood, do some creative stuff. I've asked Kevin Marks, aforemention fixer of links, to co-administer this blog with me, so, that means you should kiss up to him now. Although Kevin is busy with his own gang blog on the Small Pieces book, he's offered to pitch in around here when he has time. Thanks again, Kevin. Any ideas from the group about how to lively up ourselves would be good.

And on that note, and if you feel like reelin', check out the latest EGR, RageBoy unplugged (someone musta already used that once upon a time, but, it felt like that to me). There's too much I could say, so I'll shut up. I'm going to the back of the class now to doodle.

Admin note

Blogger stopped generating archives for this blog a while back, so I smacked it about the head and they are back now. This is why the permalinks were failing - there was no archive page there.
I now return you to your regularly scheduled silence.

New resource - copyfight

First, Marek, thank you for blogging about RageBoy's Tungsten Heart. I've been wandering inside his last two sends here and I haven't been quite ready, focused, and willing to hurt enough to blog on them myself--yet. But it's coming.

Wanted to let folks know of a new blog dedicated to intellectual property issues. Thanks to Hylton Jolliffe for the link. The blog is edited by Donna Wentworth of the Berkman Center. Donna's been at the Berkman since 1997 and is editor of The Filter. technology. Hylton says to send comments, suggestions to donna@corante.com or at hylton@corante.com. The site says of itself:

"Here we'll explore the nexus of legal rulings, Capitol Hill policy-making, technical standards development and technological innovation that create--and will recreate--the networked world as we know it."

Hearty undertaking. Denise and Kevin, I thought this might be right up your alley!

Rageboy's Rubber Soul and his Tungsten Heart

Rageboy is naked and he burns brightly

A little older, I saw the same surprise in your eyes. In their depths,

a hidden universe unfolding. A hidden door. Alive. Life looking back

at me. And I realized than that I have in myself the capacity for awe,

for worship, for wonder. For love. Not a fantasy. Not a dream. Real.

Living breathing here and now. But knowing this is more than common

knowledge. Much more than pedestrian everyday fact. It is magic to say

to a real person: I see the world in you.

I am a son of an electrician. I grew up with talks of light, electric light but light nevetherless. The electrical light is possible only when there is a light-bulb, a container, a see-through container that hold a piece of metal, its heart, which burns brightly when plugged into the source.

Tugsten is used for the heart, it has the highest melting point of all metals, but it easily oxidises in the presence of air. The heart can only burn when immersed in the vacuum, it has to be in the presence of no air to give off light. The light-bulb burns out when air surrounds it

The container has to have a see-through quality, the most possible nakedness desired, or no one will be able to see the light of the heart. Glass, resistant to corrosion of somethingness on the outside of the lightbulb and the nothingness on the inside, is used for that purpose.

Light-bulb was desinged to imitate human beings when their soul is totally naked and their heart burns brightly. Don't give Rageboy any air, the fucker will burn out. No air I said!

I am being fair . . . . aren't I?

I acknowledge(d) the contribution that experienced, intelligent marketing makes to any business.

But do you really think you need to do the "big dig" to find out that people entering a food business want it to be clean?

Really?

And actually keeping it clean, being nice to customers, etc, is all part of properly managing *any* such business. It has little, if anything, to do with marketing per se, afaics.

Be fair, Denver

In the article, this is what he said about marketing Starbucks without TV advertising:

...when I first started doing my research about how consumers perceived Starbucks, I was amazed at how few retailers actually paid attention to the in-store experience. Things like cleanliness and ways to be unique among competitors were totally ignored. I realized that we had an opportunity to influence everything that happened once the consumer walked in [to a store]. I thought redesigning the stores, and focusing as much as possible on making Starbucks a unique and pleasant experience, was going to be more effective than a big ad campaign.


So if Jordon's local Starbucks is a pleasant looking place with calming music and decent coffee, that is how it was designed...
(On a personal note, my employer completely transformed the in-house catering a few years back by hiring a top restaurant manager and giving him carte blanche to hire others, as long as the food side was self-supporting. The food is excellent now, and they roast and blend their own coffee beans, making it delicious, and half the price of Starbucks. In fact I think I'll go down and get one now).

Bad coffee and marketing

I see what you are saying. The attachment I have with Starbucks is with the product and the store (which is staffed by people and visited by people who I also connect with) not a logo. You are right about advertising. Point well taken.

Worth Repeating

Dan Gillmor, technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News, says he has been inundated with e-mail since launching a Weblog in 1999, sparking online discussions that have helped change his approach to journalism.
“My readers know more than I do, and that’s a liberating notion, not a scary one,” he says. “Every journalist ought to realize it’s true. No matter what you cover, your readers know more collectively than you do. If we can capture that, we all come out ahead.”
If you think of traditional journalism as a lecture, Gillmor said, Weblogs include elements of a seminar and conversation. “The division that has existed between the journalist and the audience is blurring, and that’s a good thing,” he says.


See the whole article Here.

Jordon,

You're not wrong.

Usually, that is my function.

But ask yourself this question: Was it the marketing department that performed (and continues to perform) its job to the point that you were attracted into this emotional attachment?

Or put it another way: If the marketing department had done its job exactly the same as it has, but this particular Starbucks was a grubby little shit-hole with burnt coffee, surly staff, and correspondingly poor service, would the attachment still exist?

I'm not saying that marketing doesn't have a valid role in a corporation, but I'm suspicious of professional marketers attempts to pretend that they are the (major) reason for a company's success in the marketplace, which is at least a little bit how this article reads.

"co-contributors to success" - that I can buy.

Note to self

learn french.

Arafat Emerges from his Compound

This blog and the land of gonzo in general have been suffering from the captivity of RageBoy lately. Quietly, behind the scenes, RB's boy wonder, Chris Locke, has been chain smoking in his compound, communicating only with a few unshowered associates, as he writes to make sense of life, inhumanity, abuse, love, love lost, love that maybe never was, fucking faeries, and other things that only people who have been pulling for him lately would understand--that means you guys. Read it if you haven't. Caution: Golby-sized download.

j.