FRANKthoughts

About two weeks ago I was chatting with a guy at the climate change rally. As a socialist activist type he wanted to take down the capitalist system - “Look at what is happening now”, he said “its all capitalism fault”. I thought this is a bit extreme (We all love buying nice stuff no?) and offered an alternative.

I was suggesting something called Social Capitalism. Social capitalism for me means: capitalism with a social conscious. It means that instead of spending ten million on your advertising, you will spend nine million. 10% of your budget will go for a social cause.  Here’s a great example from my all time favorite ThreeMinds:

“To celebrate its 15th anniversary, The Toronto-based agency TAXI decided to mark the occasion with a big idea, one that would give back to the community. What they’ve created is The 15 Below Project and a jacket for the homeless. The jacket is breathable, waterproof, lightweight, and the lining is made up of pockets throughout. These pockets can be stuffed with newspaper to provide adjustable levels of insulation from the cold. The concept came from Steve Mykolyn, Executive Creative Director at Taxi who enlisted long-time friend and designer, Lida Baday, to create the jacket.”

How about taking this project even further? in a brilliant move TAXI is also auctioning 15 signed jackets on ebay. This is pretty cool. How about coming up with something like this instead of our regular Christmas gifts for our clients? how about a project like this instead of a Christmas party?

Is there anything this thing cant do??? read all about it on Techcrunch. Think you’ve seen everything? how about turning your iphone into a game controller?

As FRANk is using a polar bear icon on it’s website we feel we need to pay something back for using the bears IP.  That’s why we are sponsoring a bear every year. Here’s another way to spread the message: A life jacket for Polar bears:

From Inhabitat: As the climate crisis mounts and Arctic icebergs slip away, polar bears are suffering starvation, population declines, and drowning as they must swim further and further to find food. Seeking to raise awareness for the endangered species’ plight, ADDI Concepts has taken wildlife preservation literally by designing a life-vest for displaced polar bears struggling to stay afloat as their homes sink into the sea.

ADDI - a Swedish design agency has done the work to promote awareness and not as a physical solution. One of the most interesting comments suggests using old oil platforms to make artificial islands for the bears to rest on, replacing the melting icebergs. What a cool idea. Or so I thought. After researching for a bit I found this answer by a WWF employee:

“Some people have suggested that artificial platforms placed in the water could act as a home for the bears. In reality, however, one must recognise the vast scale of the Arctic and the area normally covered by ice. It would not be practical to replace that with artificial platforms. Such platforms are also no substitute for the role of sea ice in food production. Sea ice is part of a vital arctic food web, sustaining plants and animals from single-celled creatures all the way up to seals. Without this food web, polar bears cannot survive.” 

This answer was posted on a site called “Get Satisfaction“. Their byline? Customer service doesn’t have to suck. The service is a very cool application enabling a conversation between real employees and consumers. I tried to look for Telstra but came up with a two comment thread about nothing. Perhaps this is a US focused service for now, but a great idea for any company.

Find a simple way to make me talk about you and love you. Give me something I need/want. Don’t make it hard for me to participate. Make it easy for me to tell a friend. Make it worth my while.

This is what T-mobile was trying to do in the US last week. They called it: “Customer Delight Day” and they got PR from a number of sources including this mention in CrunchGear. Now, I love the idea of Customer delight but in this case I think the marketing team was getting high on their own supply. Here are some of the comments on the CrunchGear post:

“I stopped by a T-Mobile store today (original, not a reseller) — the rep didn’t know anything about the promotion so couldn’t offer anything. It was in in the Washington DC metro area.” 

“During these rainy days in Seattle this is one of the few bright spots to look forward too. Thank you TMobile for making my day more enjoyable. I’ll just go to your downtown store to be delighted. Oh wait it is closed. F U BASTARDS” 

“Sort of smart, given the absolute customer satisfaction peril the telecom industry is in. But still quite misguided – a wham-bam-thank-you-m’am stunt like that is sure to get some PR value (heck, here we are talking about it) but doesn’t exactly foster a long-term relationship with even those customers who do stop by to collect their “delight.” Missing the “step beyond” factor.” 

How about making customers delight day every day of the year? Or every week? Instead of a get $10 free calls how about making every Monday a mummy makeover day? That’s what Kidspot social, the social place for mums are doing and it’s a great example of how to grow a community of passionate users.

Here’s what this weeks winner sent to Kidspot:

Mum mum mum I want some fun
Always about the
Kids
Everyday is the same
Outrage at Mum saying No
Violent Tantrums they can throw
Endless nappies to be changed
Round the clock I hear MUM!!

Makeover Monday my only hope
One day for me me me
New hair for a yummy mummy
Daddy (husband) will think I’m a MILF
Attractive & Alive
Yes this will make me want to give you a HI-5

You’ll notice the first letters make the words: Makeover Monday. How’s this for some brand loving? Please compare with the comments on the T-mobile promotion. Here’s the big difference: The Makeover Monday is a small treat but hey, it’s going to make the chosen mum KICK ASS. The T-mobile promotion doesn’t make me kick ass. Is your marketing helping your users to kick ass?  (Thank you Kathy Sierra - wish you were still blogging).

Tamir’s not that happy with MTV, but he likes change…..hmmmmmmmmm. Perhaps this MTV Networks International’s Global Climate Change Campaign will restore his faith:

Cool, heh? Or should I say warm? The online component, MTV Switch, uses tag lines like ‘Go Lo Carb’ and animated characters known as ‘Environmentors’ to to educate users (probably Gen Y and younger) about simple things individuals and households can do to reduce carbon emissions. The Environmentors are adorable - Treehugger is my favourite and I have a soft spot for Mother Nature - she reminds me of my Grandma.

The first post I’ve written on FRANK thoughts was about change. Now everything is changing. The environment, the economy, the technology, the politics. In dramatic times of change there is no point in going “business as usual”. We cant just sit on the fence and see where this is going. In every change situation, especially in a downturn, there’s an opportunity. We just need to find it. A few thoughts on how to start:

1. Obama won because of the web - how can you do it? it’s not about investing more money. It’s about investing what you have in a different way. Twitter costs nothing. Can you spare 10 minutes per day to make your clients feel better? How about getting all your employees to send photos to flickr? video on youtube? it’s all there and all free.

2.  Make your users lives better - How can you help your customers? Instead of another advertising campaign talking about how you re-branded (changed your package and added a green overlay to your logo), why not spend the money on revolutionize the way packaging works (see how Amazon did it!) ? This is also called Marketing as a service. If done right it’s a word of mouth investment that can have enormous ROI.

3.  Use the wisdom of crowds - you don’t need an expansive and expensive survey to get some feedback. A time of change is a great excuse to “clean your closet”. Create a small (5 question) survey and email it to your clients. Ask for real feedback and do something about it! If you want to go the extra mile why not ask your customers to be part of your business. Starbucks did it. Want to do it too? you can use UserVoice.

4. Start reading blogs - blogs are a great source of information. More than that they are great source of inspiration. Start reading some and figure out how to use RSS (If you haven’t already, it’s easy). Another 20 minutes per day reading blogs can lead you to some extremely valuable ideas.

5.  Look for the people who know and ask for advice- there are plenty of us now. People who know how to use online tools and will be happy to answer questions, provide links, recommend colleagues and give away ideas.

What can you add to this? what did you do to find the opportunity in changing times?

Well, MTV Music online had a brilliant week until…. they locked more then 50% of their content to people outside the US. This is just annoying. Can’t you guys find some way to engage with your audience online? The music industry is now struggling for more than 3 years and the best they can come out with is punishing, restricting access and losing money. Take a look at Myspace solution with MTV content with a company called Auditude. So, it works with (M)TV content. Why can’t it work with music? All I want is to get physical, so can you please put an itunes “buy it now” button on the video and get this over with?

Olivia Newton-John |MTV Music

Last week I’ve found out that Australia is going to be the third country in the world getting an electric car network! The company behind this initiative is called “better place” and they’re now collaborating with AGL and Macquarie bank to establish a network of electric cars, charge spots and battery exchange stations. Better place goals are sustainable transportation, global energy independence and freedom from oil. I like what they’re doing on their site especially a nifty little idea called: “10 word manifesto”, where you can tell the world the reason why you think we must end our addiction to oil. You can also ebbed and share yours on your blog!
I can’t wait to drive one of these cars myself. I just wish their cars would look as sexy as Tesla’s:

I hate being told that something is not possible. Here is another small example that proves impossible is only a temporary state of mind.

Thanks IDEO.