Is data destroying the advertising industry or are marketers focusing too much on measurement? I think this is one of those rare arguments where there really isn’t a right answer.  Or at least there isn’t a large enough group of people ready to come forth with a confident response. It’s kind of like asking for fitness advice.  If there are five people in the room, it’s pretty probable that they’ll all have different perspectives on the right way to lose weight.

A lot of what we hear from digital and traditional agencies alike involves things like mastering speed, innovation, and engagement.  Take for instance, one of the most easily indefinable brands, Burger King, and the brand work they did with Crispin (ie. Subservient Chicken/Meat Perfume).  While both of these examples are a bit outdated, they paint a perfect picture of how things happen today. The goal is to get thousands of people tweeting to a hashtag, hundreds of comments on a Facebook page, blog coverage on top news aggregators, and insane amount of web traffic to a customized web landing page.  Sure this is great, and a lot can be said about building brand awareness, recognition, and cultural relevance.  But at the end of the day, Burger King was spending a ton of money on programs that weren’t creating measurable sales results.

Anyone that’s ever had anything to do with advertising knows that a lot of things have to happen in order for an ad to be effective.  The messaging, the medium, the frequency, the audience- all of these factors have to be exactly right for something to click with a consumer.  In the past, it was enough for advertisers to say three million people saw your television spot.  More recently, it was enough to say 3,000 people clicked on your banner ad.  Then came social measurements- your brand has one hell of a Twitter presence.  I’m not sure what the next iteration of data is going to be, but I’ve got to imagine it’s going to have to be something to do with sales impact.

Don't get my wrong, I'm by no means an advertising cynic. I love the Old Spice campaign just as much as the next guy.  What I'm skeptical on right now is measured media, and I'm not the only one.  Marketers from Coke, AT&T and others are out to reinvent web measurement.  And no, I'm not asking that a banner ad click be tied directly to a measureable milestone. I'm simply asking for something more substantial than two million national media impressions.

Well, it’s official, I’ve jumped out of the ad game and into an online marketing role at Charter Business.  No, it wasn’t a bad break up. In fact, I had a really great run for the first two years of my career.  In the end, it comes down to the area in which I see myself succeeding, an area that is consistently growing, and an area where I myself I have an unending love affair- digital, social, interactive, and everything that happens online.

So I’m one week in at Charter and I’ve learned more than I could imagine.  While my past experience does extend to national, I’ve never worked on a brand with such massive size and scope.  A competitor in innovation in an area in which I’m super interested (see my recent post on The Future of Digital/Streamable Media) I’m really excited about the opportunity in front of me at Charter.

As for my blog, I still plan on keeping current with new posts on the future of media and marketing.  But more importantly, you might want to bookmark Popcorn Jury as I’ll have a full premium cable package with unlimited access to On-Demand.  Coming from someone who’s been cut off from cable for the past two years, this could be quite scary. 

Thanks for following.  Stay tuned.

I've been busy blogging, just not for myself. I plan on posting some new stuff here soon, but in the meantime, take a minute to check out some of the new entries on the Schupp Company blog.  All of the links below are worth reading. It's been a great collaboration excercise with all the employees and the interns at Schupp. Head over there and add them to your RSS.

The Bottom Rung Presents: Harder, Better, Faster, Schupper

The Bottom Rung Presents: Oh Snap!

Schupp Company Volunteers in Joplin, MO

Instagram

5 Tips to Landing Your Dream Internship

The Bottom Rung Presents: Schupp Company and the Trolls of the Second Floor

Controlled Agression: The Art of Getting a Drink at the Bar

Beer Today. Gone Tomorrow?

I get Google+, I really do. But I also think it's unimportant, unneccesary, and a little bit inconvenient. Trust me, I love Google. Their search engine, Maps, and Places features are applications that I literally couldn't live without. Their social networking features from Buzz to Wave, to Groups just haven't caught on with me. In fact, I'm actually utilizing Groups for a freelance gig with a local designer and it's almost unusable as a source to share work, inspirations or ideas. I think Google+ is going to fall down by the wayside too. Why? Because the experience isn't friendly, the design isn't pretty, and the idea isn't innovative. In fact, I'd argue it's taking Facebook and Twitter backwards, using "privacy" and "circles" as excuses to jump into the social business sphere one additional time.

Now that I've got that out of way, I'll touch on the technology. Google is by far one of the smartest companies in the world.  If anyone brings us into the "Minority Report" millenium, it will be the minions at Google.  I agree with the ideas inside Google+.  I'll also agree that they have one hell of a marketing team. If the actual experience matched up to the point-of-views portrayed in the videos below, we would all be interacting in ways only seen in Steven Speilberg movies. But we're not there yet. 

My mom is the master of Facebook. She's not quite into Twitter. She wouldn't go near Google+.

That, therein, lies the problem.

Well Google...will you prove me wrong?

I've seen two of these in the past two months.  The first, for Shock Top Belgian-Style Wheat Ale, and now another for Gillette.  Aside from getting some word-of-mouth online, what are these stunts doing for the brand.  No one would even know they exist if you didn't spend thousands of dollars to fly by and shoot it from above.  A dying tactic, I'm over the field ad.

Is this not a giant waste of money?

Here lately, all I see is spam on my Facebook wall. The most popular? Probably "See a girl have an orgasm while riding a rollercoaster". I have a hard time believing that 20-30 of my friends clicked the link, but then again, you never know. Either way, I think the most important word in advertising today is relevancy. It's ditching the production model of the past- having an idea, and executing it as soon as possible to capture a relevant audience at a relevant time. This is especially true in digital.

Ed Relf, CCO of Mind Candy says it best:

"I have worked in places where it takes as long to sign off the bugdget as it does to create the campaign. It's a broken model that doesn't work. If I have an idea in the morning, we execute it by the afternoon. It's the only way it can work in the online space."

For all I know, Webroot could've been working on this for months.  Regardless, it's simple, relevant, and smart. 

Still, my advice for not getting a virus?  Go buy a Mac.

I’m consistently amazed at the ways in which we consume media.  For me, it’s a mixture of online and on-demand.  I very rarely catch something on TV as it’s happening live.  But then again, who does.  Almost everything online happens in real-time.  On television, even when something is live, it’s often way behind.  Take the Bachelorette, or other similar shows as an example.  Sure, we think we’re witnessing something live, but in reality, there’s a bunch of people online already chatting about the outcome. 

That’s not to say that media can exist solely in an online environment.  Nowadays blogs serve as the initial point of contact, while traditional news sources often confirm a fact.  I read movie blogs to get a feel for a movie, but I turn to the pros for validation from afar.  Then again, one could argue that even for expert reviews and opinions, I don’t turn towards a traditional news source.  While Roger Ebert works for the Chicago Sun Times, no one ever said you had to be a subscriber to access his review archive online. 

For me, traditional media doesn’t always work.  I don’t want products to be sold on me; I want to be sold on them.  If you put a Brooks Brothers ad in front of me, oftentimes, I’ll flip right through it.  On the other hand, if the editor at GQ hails it as a hot summer item, you better believe I’m taking two looks.  For other people, it’s less of a science; they simply want exposure to a brand.  A print ad in a magazine, a Web banner on favorite site, or a billboard on the highway is enough to build that brand.  I suppose an integrated effort on behalf of the brand is becoming more and more crucial so that every member of the audience is impacted.

At the end of the day, I don’t know whether the way we consume media is shifting or the way media wants to be consumed has changed.  You might be reading this from an iPhone today, an iPad tomorrow, or an RSS feed months after that.  Or, you may be a traditional type, someone who won’t ever read this at all. 

Whatever the fact, as long as people are reading and watching, the art of writing will forever live on.

If I worked for Lego, I'd immediately bring this guy on board. Why? He embodies everything that the brand stands for- creativity, culture, construction, and collaboration. Sponsor his work in a traveling art gallery, feature him in a behind-the-scenes web series as he pieces together his next project, or profile his work on a micro site devoted to customers living the Lego legacy.

Sometimes, the things people do with products are more interesting and more descriptive than the products themselves. 

The Create or Else program, crafted by Oglivy highlights inspirational movers and shakers.

Brands- maybe it's time you take note.

I wanted to see what the weather was like in surrounding areas throughout Missouri after hearing about possible tornados.  With that, I googled "Rolla."  Here's what I got.

Traditional Google search for "Rolla" (2:15pm- 5/25/11)

Note: The most up-to-date news article is roughly 12 days old.  It has nothing to do with weather.

"Realtime" Google search for "Rolla" (2:15pm- 5/25/11)

The digital world moves much faster than the traditional media environment.  Are you up to speed?