Experience Manifesto

Big Brother vs. Little Brother

A few days ago, another video surfaced of a woman berating a cashier at Michael's. She went on for quite some time and the video has been viewed over 4 million times since it was put up. Later, David Armano asked if it was appropriate to continue to shame her and what the appropriate response was to what she had done. Many people were passing around her name, address, etc., and people have raised over $22K for their cashier involved.

In part because I was part of the Glass Explorers program (I wore Google Glass every day), and in part due to all of the privacy debates happening right now, I’ve been thinking about Big Brother vs. Little Brother in today’s society. Now, I don’t remember where I first saw the term Little Brother, but it was used to describe what happens when regular people are recording everything you do, not the government. And that started me thinking about the role of context in this discussion.

I’m not going to debate today whether or not the government should be doing what it clearly has been doing, that’s for a much longer post, but let me start with this premise. It is the hope, that the government is doing what it’s doing with some sort of context happening. That it is using the data it’s collecting and reviewing to look for patterns that might indicate potential problems. Yes, I know that there are a lot of issues with this and I do not mean to gloss them over. But for the sake of this discussion, think about the patterns they’re looking for. It’s about putting your actions into context, so that they have the opportunity to make us safe.

Little Brother, however, is not about context at all. It’s about taking a moment in time and making that the whole story. So it’s the woman who videotaped her experience in Dunkin’ Donuts and ended up making herself look bad. Who knows, maybe she had lots of bad experiences there (although everything indicates she did not), and this one time, she was not being herself. But that’s now we all see her. There is no context at all.

And that's what happens with your brand too. You can have thousands of great customer interactions, but thanks to Little Brother, that one bad experience is now how everyone see's you. And without context, the audience doesn't know what lead up to the experience they're watching.

Are you prepared for Little Brother? Thanks to everyone having cameras on their phones and things like Google Glass coming into the mainstream, Little Brother is growing every day. As I said in Really, You Do Control the Message:

People amplify the message you start. Start with a great message and that's what people will amplify. Have a bad message and that's what they'll pass along.

And thanks to SM, people can really amplify that message today. I use to enjoy watching people on "Smile, You're on Candid Camera" and watching all of those crazy reactions. Well, today, you still have to keep smiling, but the camera is no longer hidden! Are you ready for your candid close-up? Is your brand?

What Real Time Marketing Should Really Be

Back in 2009, I wrote a piece about failing to communicate and how an abundance of information creates a scarcity of information. I wrote back then:

So we do we do in a world where we have an abundance of information and a scarcity of attention? Create just in time marketing that allows us to deliver the right information to the right person at the right time. When I'm shopping for a car, I want all of the car information I can find. Once I've actually bought a car, I don't want any more car information.

I believe that just-in-time marketing creates a huge opportunity, especially for placed-based media (like at retail), that we haven't even begun to explore. This is not just digital networks running content we don't really pay attention to, this is creating ways to give people the information they need to make a purchase decision when they want to and how they want it.

But that takes a lot of work and really, for the most part, I think that too often we don't really think it's worth the effort. We've got to find the balance between the abundance of information and a scarcity of attention. That's why I believe in just-in-time communication. Get people the information when they want and you'll find that people will give you the attention you want.

Today, people talk about real time marketing, but the mainly talk about reacting in real time to what's happening in the world, which seemed to really take off with Oreo's very funny tweet when the power went out during the Super Bowl. That was well done (and I'm a huge eater of Oreos!), but did it help people with their decision about whether or not to eat Oreos?

See I think the more powerful version of real time marketing is actually delivering information when and how people need it. I'd love to see more brands doing that.

What We Have Here is a Failure to Comunicate

The Real Privacy Issue?

While there are certainly things that have changed since I first wrote this piece in 2001, there's a lot of underlying issues that I think still hold true. People want value from their data. Value for them. When companies do that, both the consumer and the company wins.

The Real Privacy Issue

Online privacy. It's in our headlines every day. We talk about it at trade shows; over lunch and even the government is getting involved. How can it controlled? Who can use your information? Whose information can you use? The Child Privacy Act has gone into effect and it will have a major impact on how we collect information online. The recent outcry over Doubleclick's collection and use of user information is a testament to how we feel about our information and what people do with it on the net. All of this activity being built around the information that we can gather about what people do; like; click and buy. We know all about them and they seem to be sending us a message that they don't like that.

But is that the message? Are we are looking for answers to a question that might not be being asked. Is privacy the real issue? Are consumers really upset that we gather information about them?

A few years back, well maybe more then a few years, one of the most popular shows on TV was set in a bar "where everyone knows your name." Each time Norm walked through the door, the whole bar yelled "Norm!" and Sam or Woody poured a beer and got it ready at his stool. In fact, Sam knew everything about the people in that bar. He knew their likes and dislikes and used it to serve his customers well.

Another TV icon from even further back, and one that represents at least the myth of how we viewed America in an earlier time, was Sam Drucker. He always knew what the residents of Hooterville liked and ordered. His hello was usually something to the effect of "Got those lemon drops you like so much." Everyone in Hooterville appreciated that Sam knew what they liked and had it ready for them.

TV shows might not be the best examples of this phenomenon, but how many places to you know like this? My wife & I used to visit a small Italian restaurant in the Village where the food was great and the service and attention was even better. The first time we ate there, after I asked for butter for the bread, the chef/owner gave me a long lecture about how bad butter was for me and then brought me out some olive oil. Not only did we not get upset about his invasion of my privacy, his interest in us was the central reason that we went back time after time. And each time we ate there, he always prepared something for us that wasn't on the menu, but was based on what he knew we liked.

Who doesn't like to go to a store or restaurant where "everyone knows your name." In fact, how many times have you paid more for something or driven further to get it, just because a particular place gives you better service because that store "invaded your privacy." Don't you consider this a positive experience in the offline world? In fact, we get such a warm feeling from the invasion of privacy, that we usually make sure that we take our friends there, just so they can be impressed when the bartender or store clerk knows our name!

See, I think we're dealing with the wrong question. While we certainly need to protect privacy online, I think that we should be focusing our efforts on how can we bring a value to the consumer that translates into a better online experience? What will make the consumer feel as though everyone just called their name when they walked in? How can we create an experience where the owner comes out to greet each visitor and thanks them for being there, while pointing out that they know what the consumer likes?

Right now, we all know that the focus of gathering information from the consumer online is for our value, not theirs'. Sure, we pretend it's for them, but everyone knows better. Is it really a consumer value proposition that we can give them targeted ads? Is getting unsolicited e-mails about products that are similar to something they've purchased a value proposition for the consumer? No, of course not. It's a value proposition for us. If you look at how we generate revenue online, how much of it comes from the gathering, use and sale of consumer information?

The consumer knows that they're not getting anything of value for the information we ask of them. They know that right now, we're the only ones who really benefit from the knowledge we gather. Don't you think my wife and I would have stopped going to that little Italian restaurant if the information that he gathered from us was for his sole benefit? If we had walked into a restaurant around the corner and found that he had sold our information to other restaurants, how would we have felt? The reason we didn't mind telling him what we liked and disliked was because it always gave us a better meal and a better experience. And that, in turn, created value for him as an owner.

I think that's what the consumer wants from their online experiences as well. They want to see value from the information they give up. They want to know that if they give us something, they'll get something back. They want a place "where everyone knows your name." We need to create that place and do it pretty quickly.

There are two ways for us to create a value for the consumer. I guess the simplest way would be to cut the consumer in on the value of the information they give to us. Giving them great strike prices on stock would certainly entice the consumers to share themselves with us.

Of course, the better way would be to figure out how to put Sam Malone or Sam Drucker into every web site. To make sure that the consumer is the one who benefits from the giving of information, not us. Our benefit should come from the experiences that we create for the consumer, not from a quick sale of their information.

Consumers all want their experiences to be authentic and that's why my wife & I liked our Italian restaurant. And that's why we wouldn't want to walk into another restaurant that had received information from ours and acted like we were old friends. It would not be an authentic experience! And neither is getting e-mails and ad-specific banners. We're all consumers ourselves, we should know better.

Now, we are the creative industry, so perhaps we could at least come up with some better terms! I mean, can't we make 'data mining' at least sound warm and fuzzy? At least that would buy us some time while we wait to see whether or not either of the Sam's is available for our sites!

Everything Old is New Again, The Real Privacy Issue

Everything Old is New Again, or The Real Privacy Issue

[NOTE - This was originally writtwen in 2001 and focused just on the online space. Think it's still valuable as we continue to explore the relationship between brands, consumers & privacy.]

Online privacy. It's in our headlines every day. We talk about it at trade shows; over lunch and even the government is getting involved. How can it controlled? Who can use your information? Whose information can you use? The Child Privacy Act has gone into effect and it will have a major impact on how we collect information online. The recent outcry over Doubleclick's collection and use of user information is a testament to how we feel about our information and what people do with it on the net. All of this activity being built around the information that we can gather about what people do; like; click and buy. We know all about them and they seem to be sending us a message that they don't like that.

But is that the message? Are we are looking for answers to a question that might not be being asked. Is privacy the real issue? Are consumers really upset that we gather information about them?

A few years back, well maybe more then a few years, one of the most popular shows on TV was set in a bar "where everyone knows your name." Each time Norm walked through the door, the whole bar yelled "Norm!" and Sam or Woody poured a beer and got it ready at his stool. In fact, Sam knew everything about the people in that bar. He knew their likes and dislikes and used it to serve his customers well.

Another TV icon from even further back, and one that represents at least the myth of how we viewed America in an earlier time, was Sam Drucker. He always knew what the residents of Hooterville liked and ordered. His hello was usually something to the effect of "Got those lemon drops you like so much." Everyone in Hooterville appreciated that Sam knew what they liked and had it ready for them.

TV shows might not be the best examples of this phenomenon, but how many places to you know like this? My wife & I used to visit a small Italian restaurant in the Village where the food was great and the service and attention was even better. The first time we ate there, after I asked for butter for the bread, the chef/owner gave me a long lecture about how bad butter was for me and then brought me out some olive oil. Not only did we not get upset about his invasion of my privacy, his interest in us was the central reason that we went back time after time. And each time we ate there, he always prepared something for us that wasn't on the menu, but was based on what he knew we liked.

Who doesn't like to go to a store or restaurant where "everyone knows your name." In fact, how many times have you paid more for something or driven further to get it, just because a particular place gives you better service because that store "invaded your privacy." Don't you consider this a positive experience in the offline world? In fact, we get such a warm feeling from the invasion of privacy, that we usually make sure that we take our friends there, just so they can be impressed when the bartender or store clerk knows our name!

See, I think we're dealing with the wrong question. While we certainly need to protect privacy online, I think that we should be focusing our efforts on how can we bring a value to the consumer that translates into a better online experience? What will make the consumer feel as though everyone just called their name when they walked in? How can we create an experience where the owner comes out to greet each visitor and thanks them for being there, while pointing out that they know what the consumer likes?

Right now, we all know that the focus of gathering information from the consumer online is for our value, not theirs'. Sure, we pretend it's for them, but everyone knows better. Is it really a consumer value proposition that we can give them targeted ads? Is getting unsolicited e-mails about products that are similar to something they've purchased a value proposition for the consumer? No, of course not. It's a value proposition for us. If you look at how we generate revenue online, how much of it comes from the gathering, use and sale of consumer information?

The consumer knows that they're not getting anything of value for the information we ask of them. They know that right now, we're the only ones who really benefit from the knowledge we gather. Don't you think my wife and I would have stopped going to that little Italian restaurant if the information that he gathered from us was for his sole benefit? If we had walked into a restaurant around the corner and found that he had sold our information to other restaurants, how would we have felt? The reason we didn't mind telling him what we liked and disliked was because it always gave us a better meal and a better experience. And that, in turn, created value for him as an owner.

I think that's what the consumer wants from their online experiences as well. They want to see value from the information they give up. They want to know that if they give us something, they'll get something back. They want a place "where everyone knows your name." We need to create that place and do it pretty quickly.

There are two ways for us to create a value for the consumer. I guess the simplest way would be to cut the consumer in on the value of the information they give to us. Giving them great strike prices on stock would certainly entice the consumers to share themselves with us.

Of course, the better way would be to figure out how to put Sam Malone or Sam Drucker into every web site. To make sure that the consumer is the one who benefits from the giving of information, not us. Our benefit should come from the experiences that we create for the consumer, not from a quick sale of their information.

Consumers all want their experiences to be authentic and that's why my wife & I liked our Italian restaurant. And that's why we wouldn't want to walk into another restaurant that had received information from ours and acted like we were old friends. It would not be an authentic experience! And neither is getting e-mails and ad-specific banners. We're all consumers ourselves, we should know better.

Now, we are the creative industry, so perhaps we could at least come up with some better terms! I mean, can't we make 'data mining' at least sound warm and fuzzy? At least that would buy us some time while we wait to see whether or not either of the Sam¹s is available for our sites!

The Real Privacy Issue