20 January 2009

Posted at 19:09h in comments, laurel papworth, seth godin by

  Every six months or so somebody says something about Seth Godin's blog and the inability to comment. Laurel Papworth is the provoker this time with a very interesting post and an even more interesting discussion in the comments. Hilarious video content with poor acting aside, Seth explains his reasoning...

12 November 2008

Posted at 17:23h in education, love digital, seth godin by

Last week, Love Digital interviewed Seth Godin. This week they interviewed me. Cue the greatest anti climax of all time.The interview was a follow up on a previous post about marketing education.I've decided part of my degree should teach people how to handle interviews without sounding like too much of a knob....

21 October 2008

Posted at 16:21h in purple cow, remarkable, seth godin by

... remarkably bad, that is. I can't say enough about the importance of being remarkable. Seth Godin's Purple Cow is what they should be teaching in university marketing degrees. Matt Granfield loves it almost as much as I do. But it's easy to be remarkable when you're product or service isn't good. But that's not the kind of remarkable you want to be....

17 September 2008

Posted at 12:56h in buskers, matt granfield, purple cow, remarkable, seth godin, zakazukha zoo by

The first time you see a cow it's exciting. The next time it isn't. Unless it's purple.The first time you see a busker it's exciting. The next time it isn't. Unless they're playing on your train.I was on my journey home on the train last night when a young man with a trumpet jumped on and announced he would be playing a few songs. For the next twenty minutes during my ride out of the city I listened to a rather talented trumpeter.Being the Uni student that I am, I rarely give to buskers unless they are remarkable. Yet I gave to this guy.Matt Granfield has an excellent post on how anything can be remarkable if you make it, including brown shoe laces. And now buskers....

30 July 2008

Posted at 23:27h in gruen transfer, seth godin, ucg, user generated content, who v how many, youtube by

This post stems from an article suggesting The Gruen Transfer had received over 6,100 user generated submissions on their website. As of the end of the season tonight, I've read it's reached 10,000. If this is true, the guys behind it must be ecstatic. The question I feel most important here; What is the purpose of user generated content? I'm going to go ahead and suggest the answer would be the interaction with the brand. Or at least should be. If you're going in looking for free advertising you're doing it for the wrong reasons. The user generated content on The Gruen Transfer's website follows a template. This template allows users to easily make an advertisement in five minutes or so. This is great because it allows the low involvement users to get involved and also means 10,000 entries. A similar concept has been used for Design A Coke. But this limits the user's creativity. As a result you have 10,000 entries that all look the same and because of that most of them are only viewed a couple of times at most. Most importantly the interaction with the brand is limited. Whilst I understand you need different levels of entry for interaction, I'd much prefer a passionate user who spends two hours interacting with my brand than fifty people who spent five minutes. A passionate user is likely to then upload it to YouTube. Then they're more likely to send it to their friends. Then they're more likely to check back on it regularly. They're also more likely to create something remarkable not restricted to a template. Essentially, as with most things, it comes back to Seth Godin's idea of "who" instead of "how many"....