The BeanCast

BeanCast 75: The Monopoly On Crappy Work

By Bob Knorpp

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So much for a delayed RSS posting. Apparently every feeder picked up on what was supposed to post at the usual time. So more days for you to enjoy the easy-going goodness of our cast of regulars. And to give you an idea about how much fun it was, let's just say the show ended and I recorded at least another whole show with our after-show chatter. Now THAT'S some chattiness.

So be my guest and download now. Then add me to your Twitter profile. (Cause I'm still a Twitter whore.) I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

Bill Green, Publisher, Make the Logo Bigger (The new AdVerve is up on Bill's site, but bookmark AdVerve for when the site goes live.)

Angela Natividad, Engagement Strategy Consultant, blogging at Live and Uncensored (AdVerve is also available on Angela's site.)

John Wall, Podcaster/Blogger, Marketing Over Coffee, Ronin Marketeer (His Gigadial channel is here.)


Topics:

Clarifications

  • AgencySpy Calls Us On Facts
  • What AgencySpy Sources Said
  • What Michael McSunas had to say: I agree with Matt on this one - although he could have been nicer about it in his post. I think there are some nuances in the FTC release that make it easier for lawyers to understand the guidelines. The first important thing to remember is that these are guidelines...they are not laws (legislation) or regulations. They are just supposed to provide guidance to prosecutors challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials and endorsements. The Guidelines are intended to help advertisers comply with the FTC Act. Violating the Guidelines will not result in a fine or punishment. For example, if an Advertiser pays a blogger to write positive things about a product, the Advertiser would need to ensure that the blogger discloses that fact on his or her blog. If the blogger does not disclose that fact and the Advertiser continues to pay the blogger, I could see the FTC launching an investigation of the Advertiser for deceptive practices or maybe a complaint. I think the FTC will focus on the advertisers, not the bloggers. I also think the occasional "freebie" will not bring scrutiny, but if giving away freebies is a big way of advertising for a brand, then that brand should probably require the bloggers to disclose that they received the product free. If the blogger won't agree to do this, then the brand shouldn't send the blogger any free product.
  • Revolution Magazine on IAB Getting Numbers Wrong

Lowe Goes

Ethic Shops and AOR Status

When Google Gets Evil

We Pick Ad Age Marketer of the Year

Stories To Watch

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit

Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

BeanCast 74: Dislosure Per Post

By Bob Knorpp

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This show was fated to have people with "W" last names. Even after Dave Wilkie had to cancel at the last minute, it was Åsk Wäppling who stepped in to take his place. And while we missed having Dave on, it was a fantastic group with a lot of great discussion.

So download now. Then add me to your Twitter profile. (Cause I'm a Twitter whore.) I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

John Wall, Podcaster/Blogger, Marketing Over Coffee, Ronin Marketeer

Åsk Wäppling, CEO, Adland.tv (Contact her about her effort to bring the film Art & Copy to Sweden.)

Ken Wheaton, Assistant Managing Editor, AdAge.com, Ken Wheaton Writes (Pre-order his novel, First Annual Grand Prairie Rabbit Festival, on Amazon now.)

Alan Wolk, President, Toad Stool Consultants (See his blog as well at Toad Stool Blog, find out about the Hive Awards, andread his article on Ad Age.)


Topics:

New FTC Endorsement Rules


Google Gets Creative

Fixing the USPS

Twitter Premium Accounts...Again

Facebook-Style Gifting Makes It Big

Stories To Watch

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit

Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

BeanCast 73: George Parker's Kindle

By Bob Knorpp

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Have you heard the one where George Parker breaks his Kindle and Amazon replaced it for him free of charge?

If you've listen to the show for a while, you know that George has told this story on every program he's appeared on so far. Which is both a testimony to the advocacy power of good customer service and, to be honest, slightly annoying at this point. But a quick warning before the show began became fodder for endless jokes throughout the episode. Take a drink for every time the Amazon Kindle is mentioned during this program. Then call a cab. Cause you won't be walking home.

And since you're drunk, add me to your Twitter profile for all the latest BeanCast news, as well as my random witticisms. I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

Bill Green, Publisher, Make the Logo Bigger (A reminder from Bill to check out The 3six5 Project, a massive year-long blogging effort being assembled by Len Kendall.)

Spike Jones, Firestarter, Brains on Fire

George Parker, Publisher, AdScam/The Horror! (Get George's latest book, The Ubiquitous Persuaders

Erik Proulx, Publisher, Please Feed The Animals (Check out his film project at LemonadeMovie.com)


Topics:

Olympics Letdown


Comcast Courts NBC

Digital Beats TV

Starbucks vs. Starbucks

4As Billing Report

Stories To Watch

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit

Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

BeanCast 72: This Show Was Airbrushed

By Bob Knorpp

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There's irony in doing a show on disclosure of retouching in ads, and then needing to retouch the show.* Technical difficulties plagued us, but amazingly you won't even notice, such is my skill with sound editing tools. Except, of course that part where Steve disappears from the show entirely and I couldn't reconnect him. But we were almost at the end anyway. So that doesn't count.

All in all, though, this is definitely one of the better programs. Lots of engaged discussion on some fun topics. Hope you all enjoy it.

And yes, I still want you to add me to your Twitter profile for all the latest BeanCast news, as well as my random witticisms. I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

Bill Green, Publisher, Make the Logo Bigger (A reminder from Bill to check out The 3six5 Project, a massive year-long blogging effort being assembled by Len Kendall.)

Steve Hall, Editor, AdRants

Angela Natividad, Engagement Strategy Consultant, blogging at Live and Uncensored (See Angela at the Adforum Worldwide Summit in October.)

John Wall, Podcaster/Blogger, Marketing Over Coffee, Ronin Marketeer


Topics:

Just Pay Seth


Advertising "Weak"

Facebook Shuts Down Beacon

Disclosure of Retouching

Scapegoating Ads

Stories To Watch

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit
Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

BeanCast 71: Having Safe Clicks

By Bob Knorpp

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There's was almost TOO much great content on this week's show. The panel was stacked with some of the most respected people in the business, all on fire with lots of things to say. Frankly, all I had to do was sit back and listen most of the time, jumping in occasionally to lasso the conversation back on topic.

It's a long one, clocking in at nearly an hour and a half. But this is destined to be one of our classic shows. So enjoy. Then tell your friends.

And yes, I still want you to add me to your Twitter profile for all the latest BeanCast news, as well as my random witticisms. I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

Jonah Bloom, Editor, Ad Age

Kristi Faulkner, President, Womenkind

Bill Green, Publisher, Make the Logo Bigger

Joseph Jaffe, President and Chief Interrupter, Crayon (Also check out Joe's podcasts and video programs at JaffeJuice.tvand enter the Panasonic Living in HD contest.)


Topics:

Those Crazy Ad Networks


Women Hate Social Ads?

UK TV Gets Product Placement

Peperami Fires Agency

All About Gary

Stories To Watch

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit

Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

BeanCast 70: AT&T Needs Blondes

By Bob Knorpp

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The great, four-person panel test is underway and I'd have to say it's a success so far.

This week's foursome, despite some Skype issues, was a riot of great ideas and even better humor. So get to it! Download the file now or subscribe via iTune or Zune.

And yes, I still want you to add me to your Twitter profile for all the latest BeanCast news, as well as my random witticisms. I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

Bill Green, Publisher, Make the Logo Bigger

Ben Kunz, Director of Strategic Planning, Mediassociates (Blog is Thought Gadgets)

Greg Verdino, Chief Strategy Officer, Crayon (Greg also blogs here, his Posterous page atVerdinoBytes.com and look for his book, microMarketing in bookstores next year.)

Åsk Wäppling, CEO, Adland.tv (Contact her about her effort to bring the film Art & Copy to Sweden.)


Topics:

Chaos Over Chaos


MTV's Social Experiment

Seth The Blogger Guy

P&G and e-Commerce

Twitter Terms of ADS

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit
Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

BeanCast 69: Holiday Haters Edition

By Bob Knorpp

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One thing I'm learning: If you ride your bike for double-digit miles before a show, expect to be worn out.

Luckily the second thing I'm learning: A good group of panelists is worth their weight in energy drinks.

We had some great laughs on this show, discussing some of the most fun topics we've had in a while. It's the perfect show for those of you holiday haters, sitting at home on the Labor Day weekend. And as for the rest of you? Well...I guess you can enjoy it too. ;)

And yes, I still want you to add me to your Twitter profile for all the latest BeanCast news, as well as my random witticisms. I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

C.C. Chapman, Principal, Campfire (Also read C.C.'s blog, Digital Dads, listen to his podcast Managing the Gray and get all the latest from everywhere else at CC-Chapman.com)

Angela Natividad, Engagement Strategy Consultant, Live and Uncensored

John Wall, Podcaster/Blogger, Marketing Over Coffee, Ronin Marketeer


Topics:

Fake Ad, Real Outrage


Faced on Facebook

Skype's Future

The Tester

Media Bartering

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit
Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

Has SEO Made Search Less Relevant

By Bob Knorpp

There's an undeniable trend out there. As much as the naysayers dismiss Twitter and Facebook for having aspirations toward leveraging social search, people are clearly moving toward this behavior. Whether Twitter and/or Facebook are successful in being the source for such searching is irrelevant. The genie is out of the bottle. People simply find asking for advice from their self-built networks of associates to be more valuable than searching the brand-managed results ofGoogle.

Ben Kunz offers a great examination of this trend on Thought Gadgets this week and I won't attempt to repeat his arguments, which are very sound. But his second point I think deserves a bit more attention.

"SEO Experts Have Killed Their Own Game"

To be honest, it's unfair to totally blame SEO for "killing" search relevancy. And Ben's statement used in the subhead here is intended to be inflammatory. Search has never trumped personal recommendations, so the advent of social networks and the rise of more trusted online advisers was bound to cut into search volume eventually. But it is fair to say that SEO methods have stacked results to the point that we assume a certain level of bias.

For instance, when I search for "Cars," I am greeted with all the top sites that either sell or talk about cars. But the bias is on giving me results that match what most people are looking to find when searching my term. So all I see are traditional vehicles and traditional modes of transportation. I see what I expected to see.

Now, what happens when I pose this same question to my network of friends? I'm greeted with a much more dynamic response. Some might tell me about a new electric car they just read about. Some might tell me about bio-diesel. Some might try to convince me to use public transportation. Some might just offer me a ride.

Essentially, in a well-intentioned effort to match buyers to products and reduce noise, SEO is slowly reducing alternatives to my searches and creating increasing skepticism about the legitimacy of the results. And now it's to the point that when I search Google I have to always wonder if I'm seeing what's most relevant to my needs or the result of a company that has a great search consultant and is after my dollar.

Not A Numbers Game, But A People Game

Direct marketing of every stripe has always come down to the dilemma of managing the impact of good results. The whole purpose of direct is to generate a measurable response and improve that number with each promotion. But like I said in a recent post, "numbers make lousy storytellers," and good results can sometimes rob from your future brand value to deliver results today.

This is just an outsider's perspective (I am not an SEO consultant), but it seems to me that most (not all, but most) of the search experts I know are focused entirely on delivering clicks. There's talk about the impact of search on total brand value, etc., but it all comes back to raw numbers. And if the customer is mentioned, it's in terms of aligning the customer's search desire to the business' offering.

I would argue that while this approach will work well for relevancy a good percentage of the time, in many cases it's only creating "artificial relevancy." And unless the searcher has a strong understanding of Boolean logic and how to get the most from the search engine, the results presented will have only cursory context to what the true needs are.

In short, we end up talking to the percentages more than talking to actual people.

What Needs To Change?

Now to this point, I'm sure all my SEO friends are chaffing at the collar, ready to tear in with a response. But let me first say that I wouldn't suggest that SEO needs to radically change at all. I mean certainly it would behoove them to work more closely with behavioral specialists and account planners to increase the relevancy of the results and raise the subsequent value of the leads generated, but by and large search isn't the broken component. What's broken are the results they are pointing toward.

Brands are typically focused on "push selling" across the board. They're also focused on positioning their offerings to align with customer desires as closely as possible. What they generally are not interested in is change.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having the number one search result for "shoes" be an open forum on which your shoe brand participates. Certainly the competition will be talking there. Certainly you need a better product to compete. But in doing this you achieve two things that having your sales page alone will never get: Honest dialog and personal connections.

It's a longer sell-cycle, but making interactions the focus of your SEO efforts, rather than simply your product, is the only way that traditional search can ever hope to come close to matching the long-term value of a social recommendations. Because a focus on interactions is your opportunity to hear your customers, you chance to make necessary changes or improvements to your offerings and your public showcase of how confident you are that your brand holds up against the competition -- even in a public venue. I won't go so far as to say you will become a BFF with your customers. But certainly it's miles better than just being a keyword.

And let's face facts: Even if completely disagree with me, what's the risk of testing this? What monetary risk is there to spend a year or two letting one (just one) of you treasured keywords be redirected to your social efforts, then compare the long-term value of customers acquired through one approach vs. the other? A few thousand dollars? Even $100,000 wouldn't be a huge financial risk for most companies. So why aren't more companies doing this?

Something to think about.

BeanCast 68: We Crowdsourced The Show

By Bob Knorpp

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There's something about a show with ad bloggers that can't be beat. But when you do one with bloggers who blog just because they love the industry and want to talk about it, then you get something special.

That's what we had this week. Three bloggers. And a relaxed, fun discussion that I think you'll have a blast with as well. Of course, it didn't hurt that we started off with a meaty topic like crowdsourcing of creative work, but hey, that's just the icing on the cake.

So get your sweet tooth satisfied, then swing on over to twitter.com and add me to your profile for all the latest BeanCast news, as well as my random witticisms. I'mTheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

David Burn, Editor, AdPulp

Dan Goldgeier, Featured Writer, AdPulp (Check out all of Dan's columns at AdColumnist.com)

Bill Green, Publisher, Make the Logo Bigger


Topics:

Crowdsourced Creative


Obama's Marketing Misteps

The Elusive Ad Recovery

Alternate Revenue For Mags

Microsoft Photoshop Scandal

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at podsafeaudio.com.)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit

Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!

BeanCast 67: Risky Business

By Bob Knorpp

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This idea of taking more risks in business is really intriguing.

We get so set in our way in any kind of marketing. We think our results justify our actions and have distilled advertising down to a science. But one thing that years of testing have taught me: To win big you have to throw out the safe approach and do something extraordinary.

My whole business, as well as this podcast, are the result of risk taking. The rebirth of Apple was a giant gamble with change. Taking your entire agency on a tour of your competitors and promoting them along the way (like Plaid Nation does each year) is a giant risk. But you can't win big without playing a big bet.

We've taken the theme of Kelly Eidson's post in Ad Age this week and ran amok with it. But the result was a fascinating discussion of why U.S. marketing needs to assume a little more risk to survive.

And speaking of risk, risk your sanity by adding me on your Twitter profile for all the latest BeanCast news, as well as my random witticisms. I'm TheBeanCast. As always, thanks for listening and please add a positive review to iTunes if you like the show.

Guests:

Kelly Eidson, Contributing Writer, Ad Age

Bill Green, Publisher, Make the Logo Bigger

Darryl Ohrt, President, Plaid (Also see all the Plaid Nation videos at PlaidNation.com)

Topics:

Pushing Boundaries


Anonymous Blogging

Twitter Movie Reviews

The Size of a Banner

PR Reply All Option

Credits

Opening Theme, Joe Sibol (pick up his latest album on iTunes)

Closing Theme, CJACKS

(Find more music from both artists at 

podsafeaudio.com.

)

Bandwidth provided by Recursive Squirrel Interactive.
Email services provided by Email Transmit, a product of Mass Transmit

Special thanks to 93 Octane for their help with our identity work. They make some mighty fine beans!