An Artist in the Field

Tips from Ogilvy

2010-07-15T09:02:00.003-04:00

Aint' much different going on in the world. Yep everything has changed but really nothing has. Or at least the important things never change. I recently have read a few books authored by maven, David Ogilvy. Such that I may better remember what I found most interesting, I write down this book report on the blog, thinking it would be interesting to share.

Great Ads (yeah I know we are beyond just doing ads now but the point is the point of disruption or awareness is what he refers to)

The viewer should experience: "wow that is right, or wow I never knew that ". They should never say "wow that is a clever ad."

Great ads and creatives should keep these points in mind:

1. Ads should be about what you say NOT how you say it.

2. Ads must have an idea.

3. Ads should excite. You can't bore people into buying.

4. Advertising must at some point reveal the facts.

5. For creatives: Don't be a clown. Be well mannered. You are a salesman.

6. Make it feel modern.

7. Committees can criticize ads but they can't write them.

8. Runs the same creative until it stops working.

9. Don't lie. Don't make ads you wouldn't show your family.

10. Creative should uplift the image of the brand.

Other tidbits I found to be a nice reminder of what is important in a creative environment:

1. We must provide an atmosphere where creatives can do goodwork.

2. Employees must: pull their own weight, be the smartest, be honest, be sunrise people, and have a path for upward progression.

3. Hire ambitious people from modest backgrounds over a high-priced fugitive from a fashionable agency on Madison Avenue.

Who needs a Web site anymore?

2010-04-08T14:21:00.000-04:00

I use an iPhone app to handle my banking transactions. My sister follows her favorite restaurant’s menu on the restaurant’s Facebook page, which is their only digital destination. My friend, someone who never bought a Tivo, now loves ABC’s iPad app that enables him to watch any TV show at any time in beautiful HD-like quality.

I can’t wait to see Wired magazine’s upcoming iPad publication, which might prove to be the future of publishing. Penny-pinchers eagerly await their daily Twitter coupons. A former colleague of mine views shared imagery from his various friends on his Apple TV. Our walled and password-protected worlds of social environments and content are available to us on a myriad of devices but often are unavailable to search engines. One friend of mine told me a few weeks ago he unsubscribed to all his e-newsletter subscriptions and gets fresher content via RSS feeds on his mobile device.

The digital world is experiencing a dramatic change. People are going to digital destinations to share and receive content on a variety of devices. Forrester ably labeled this phenomenon, which has crept into our world over the last few years, “The Splinternet.” And that is just what it is; the fragmentation of online destinations. For me, it is typified by clients asking: “Should I be spending my allotted Web budget on the corporate Web site, or Facebook?”

Do brands still need Web sites? Yep. One foot in the old world and one foot in the new world will serve most brands well. The time is now to embrace all these new platforms, but only if you are clear that your users/customers/prospects are already there or will be soon.

Inspiration from People and Places

2010-02-02T07:48:00.002-05:00

I work at an advertising agency. I have always been priveledged to work in "nice" spaces. But until yesterday I had never worked in "inspired" spaces. Our office moved. And we moved into a newly designed and built space that is all about the people. It is all about inspiring and providing people the opportunity to collaborate. Simply put I can't wait to drive into work and begin a new era of ideas, collaboration and creativity.

In a creative industry you can be inspired by people, the things they create and the places in which we do them. I am honestly surprised what a sudden boost of momentum and energy the people in the office seem to have. Never underestimate the power of creating inspiration wherever you do creative work. Attention to your space and where you work can do wonders for the soul.

What has your brand created for me lately?

2010-01-07T15:10:00.002-05:00

Every once in a while a product comes along that sells itself. (Think of Apple's iPhone. All you had to do was hold it and you were sold right?) And sometimes there are brands that transform customers into admirers, followers or even advocates. (I'm told once you drive a Ferrarri you never go back to a Volkswagen. Or once you own a Leica you’ll sell your Nikon etc.)

But for companies who fight the tough fight, trying to gain market share by convincing prospects of a superior brand, features, benefits or better differentiated solutions, there might be hope.

Increasingly brands can provide something that is useful, usable and desirable to the customer that does not happen to be either their product, services or solutions.

Think of these examples:

1. Nike sells shoes and clothing. And with “Nike +” they also provide a utility platform that allows runners to connect socially.

2. BF Goodrich sells tires but recently created a social community called “Nation of Go” the heart of which is the Web site and App that allow drivers to share, contribute and create their favorite driving tours.

3. Hasbro needs to sell “Monopoly City Edition” game sets and creates a 3D Monopoly inspired online game attached to Google Maps and Google Earth that allows users to compete for big prizes.

4. Nokia sells phones among other things.They created a mobile App called Nokia Money to do basic financial transactions through their mobile device.

You get the idea.

Think of it like this. Marketers have always given stuff to customers and prospects to keep them interested in their brands. And it used to be good enough to offer a coupon, a whitepaper or more recently watch a video of a white paper as a means of connection. But now brands need to try harder to become more customer-centric and connect in more meaningful ways. We need to be asking: “What do my customers need, want and desire? What would make their jobs easier, their lives more fulfilled and maybe more fun?”

Combining that customer insight with creative and engaging solutions, is the key to creating usable, useful and desirable experiences that ignite your customers and your brand. Activity like that keeps your brand alive and well considered for the slam dunk purchase.

Old Photos

2010-01-01T15:26:00.001-05:00

Evelyn and Annabelle, originally uploaded by Mike Tittel.

I have been looking through old photos during my holiday break. Amazing what you can find the "second time around". Not sure of the story here but I love the reflections and composition. Shot with the old Leica M6 and Tri-X. This must have been about 3 or 4 years ago.

I think I'm finally done being convinced film is the way to go any more. Darkroom is a true time suck and the chemistry is really bad stuff for humans.

German Beer

2009-12-28T00:37:00.001-05:00

L1020011, originally uploaded by Mike Tittel.

Two trips to Munich have now turned me into a beer snob. I think it was Warsteiner that uses the line "Life is too short to drink cheap beer." And that is exactly how I feel. Love the stuff.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-28T00:15:00.002-05:00

L1020051, originally uploaded by Mike Tittel.

Playing around with light and camera angles. Most of what I enjoy with this photograph is the idea that I had 5 minutes to really look at something and have some fun.

BB

2009-12-28T00:11:00.001-05:00

BB, originally uploaded by Mike Tittel.

In an effort to get back to my roots a bit and to get my creative juices flowing, I have started to do a photography "with a purpose" again. Here is an example. My world right now is work and family. SO I start here. A casual Sunday brunch at "Take the Cake" in Cincinnati.

I'm not in the darkroom anymore but it is still liberating to see the world through a camera.

Flickr

2009-12-28T00:04:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Being Social

2009-12-22T11:09:00.001-05:00

When you boil it all down as Mitch Joel did in "Six Pixels of
Separation", you need to have two things in place to facilitate a
social media dialogue:

1. Permission
2. Something to say

If you start with having great content then great dialogue can follow.

The Navy for Moms

2009-11-17T14:51:00.002-05:00

Saw this billboard on my way to work. Great example of connecting user motivations and needs to an online platform. The Navy has in essence created an online platform to connect mothers of children currently in the Navy or considering joining the Navy.

http://www.navyformoms.com

Switching Banks and Brand Loyalty in the Digital Age.

2009-10-28T07:25:00.000-04:00

So I have a dilemma. I have become so dependent on my cell phone to integrate my online and my offline worlds that I have come to the point where I may switch banks. I have been with my current bank since I opened my first savings account at the age of 7 years old. After numerous mergers and acquisitions and name changes I’m still there. But as I work more and have less time at home to sit in front of my computer or make trips to my bank, I need to work with a bank that suits me. (This sounds like a tv spot doesn’t it?) The fact that my bank has no mobile application that allows me to check my balances, bill pay online, and receive account communications on my phone is really bothering me. I need a mobile banking application. But they don’t have an app for that.

With banks like “Bank of America” creating robust mobile smart phone applications, the thought occurs to me that it might be time to switch banks. This opinion comes as a shock to me as just a year and a half ago I was a skeptic on just how much “use” I would get out of a smart mobile device. But now I’m a smart phone advocate and brands need to be keenly aware that loyalty in the digital age means more than providing good deals and good product. You have to connect with your audience in the ways they wish to connect.

So as I wait a few more days to see if my bank will be introducing my mobile application, I am reminded that brand loyalty in the digital age is fickle, can occur or be broken quickly and is incredibly competitive. Modern consumers are complicated, demanding and can change their minds on a dime. Alarming thought for the modern marketer and the brands they serve.

The Feedback Loop

2009-10-25T08:40:00.003-04:00

Analytics, measurement, social media, CRM, and direct marketing all have in common one thing. It is all about the feedback loop. Brands or people try to engage and connect a customer, audience or prospect, listen, learn or respond to their actions or communications and finally, make a decision to determine the next most relevant communication or engagement. It is a loop. Sometimes it goes on and on, sometimes it stops immediately, sometimes the communications remain the same, sometimes they change. But it is all about communication and conversation.

In rock 'n' roll music a feedback loop can be both bad and good. Feedback during a live show can be annoying, piercing and physically hurt or at least turn away your audience. It disconnects the listeners from the experience. But feedback loops of tonal, beautiful musical notes can become a bed of beautiful music that accompanies a song. Bands like "The Beatles" and "U2" come to mind as music that has leveraged this technique.

So what kind of feedback loop is your brand engaged with? Putting out screeching and obnoxious experiences that turn away customers and prospects? Things that "sound" like marketing spie and offer no chance for reciprocal dialogue? Or something that people connect with, want to engage with over and over again and appreciate? SOmething that people want to dialogue with and respond to?

Use the feedback loop to make good experiences better .

Competitive Assessments

2009-10-06T22:39:00.004-04:00

I have recently been involved in improving many of the processes and deliverables for the digital practice at GyroHSR. Across our industry a tool that is always daunting and hard to define is the competitive assessment of web properties, used to find opportunities for competitive advantage.

Two critical things I have learned looking at our processes:

1. The most important aspect is defining your criteria upfront and sticking to them. You can't analyze everything, so define what you are looking at and forget what you aren't.

2. An assessment should be scientific and objective. Comparisons should "show" not "tell". Leave the recommendations and "opinion" for a "Recommendations and Observations" sheet in the back of the deck.

Waking Up

2009-09-23T07:51:00.002-04:00

On a plane to NYC I watched the day unfold. A serene scene, on a day when I have a lot of work issues on my mind. I find these moments the ones where I feel that I can cut through details and problems and identify the actionable items that will get "things rolling". Perhaps it is because I was 30,000 high and the literal visual distance put me in a macro frame of mind?

Perhaps a daily "wake up call" where goals and priorities can be sorted should be a mandate.

Signage

2009-09-04T07:32:00.002-04:00

Just trekked through Paris, Munich, and Austria. For as much talk and technology about mobile messaging, digital signage, touch screen technology and digital environments, I didn't see one single example of the previous. Not sure if this is economics, or just "the way it is".

"I don't know design..." Part One

2009-08-02T16:02:00.005-04:00

When I hear people say "they don't know what good design is", I often think, "yes you do, you just don't know you do." But when people use the basis for qualification in sweeping terms as as "like and dislike", the validation of design success is placed surely in the camp of personal opinion. From that perspective it is hard to talk about and validate designs.

But there are some fundamental parameters of design that can help even the most unlikely person craft a more informed opinion on what great design really is. Here are some initial principals to consider.

When evaluating design:

1. Form Follows Function: The aesthetic beauty of a system should always be secondary to the intended function of a system. Additionally the absence of ornamentation directly correlates to the purity of function and the beauty of the system.

2. The Five W's: Does the design serve to answer the fundamental questions of who, what where, why and when?

3. The 80/20 rule: The most important functions, controls or usage of the design system occur within the top 20% percent of the total system. In short all designs have a hiearchy where the most important features and function are clearly designated and a small number of the total features available.

4. Accessibility: Systems should be designed to be used by as many people as possible within the target audience. The design must be able to be perceived by all, as usable regardless of physical abilities, as simple, without complexity, and allow forgiveness when errors occur.

5. Aesthetic-usability Effect: Aesthetic designs are perceived as easier to use. Aesthetic designs foster positive attitudes towards the system or product.

6. Affordance: An object or system should be designed to correspond with the use of it within its environment. Example: Designing for mobile screens? Then you need to consider a wide variety of ambient light that will effect the devices visual luminance and clarity.

7.Chunking: Combining many units of information into a smaller number of information so that information can be perceived and remembered quicker and easier.

8. Color: Design can use color for a variety reasons. Conisder the fact that color can attract attention, group like elements, enhance aesthetics and represent meaning.

9. Consistency: In a usable design system consistency is critical for communicating relationships, like-minded functionality and a platform for people to quickly understand new contexts, succeed in learning, and focus on relevant tasks or functions.

10. Depth of Processing: Systems and information that take more time to digest are retained easier.

Best Use of Facebook

2009-07-31T07:26:00.002-04:00

MoMA launched a site recently that I find remarkable and incredibly useful. The premise is museum visitors can preplan a custom itinerary for an upcoming visit. The really clever part is that instead of just configuring the visit by dates, the site allows you to integrate your Facebook profile into the site to further customize your visit based on data in your profile. Additionally your Facebook friend network can be included in the experience.

For me this one goes beyond the realm of gimmickry. This is actually useful. The design is well done and the experience is tight. Take a peek.

The idea of integrating your social network into "your" web experience is powerful.

http://mydayat.moma.org/home.html

User-centered Design Comes of Age

2009-07-19T10:31:00.009-04:00

Useful, usable and desirable. Those are the buzz words of utility. And they are amazingly relevant. If your company's product or service doesn't fulfill on those three tenants, you are in jeopardy of becoming, well quite frankly, irrelevant, not used and not needed. As marketing and advertising change gears from a model of disruption and intrusion to a model of audiences choosing the who, what, where and when to engage a brand, the agencies that are versed in user-centric design strategies are the ones that feel at home in this landscape. These tenants are no secret to digital agencies who have worked over the last decade. To us, it has always been about user-centric design. Our products have always been subject to precise scrutiny, usability tests, human factors and user analysis. In many ways digital designers share many commonalities with architects, designers of cars, furniture, products and software. Our products are built for people to experience something meaningful and help achieve user goals.

So how do you start moving to a user-centric approach for marketing, product and services development? Simple. Make understanding your user's/customer's goals, and their needs a top priority. Drive hard to mine the user insight needed to create great experiences.

Time, priority and money are the roadblocks. User research is the intangible marketing spend that is seemingly unnecessary to the end deliverable. Companies will say" "We know our customers...we did research years ago...but our audience is simple and hasn't changed in years...our customers are complex their is no way we could understand them entirely...or...there are too many audiences we'd never get through the research".

But not spending time on user research and analysis is a critical mistake. It is like trying to design a chair without understanding who will be sitting in it or creating software without considering who's computer it will be installed on. Innovation occurs when user's challenges are understood, new solutions are explored and the selected solutions become successful and critical for the end audience's achievement of their goal. And any user research is better than none. In many cases focusing on key audiences will inherently take care of the seconday audience needs and additionally there are many ways to get at user needs and goals that are agile and still provide relevance and meaning to a project.

Advertising is obviously changing. It is no longer satisfying for consumers to merely receive brand messages to inform their decisions. Brands must now create two-way experiences that are useful, usable and desirable in the achievement of user's goals. Where those user goals align with a brand's business objective is the marketing sweet spot.

You want innovation? Start with the understanding of your customer's needs, goals and desires. And then unleash a creative agency on ways to excite, delight and solve those customer challenges and passions.

Understanding User Needs

2009-07-16T21:14:00.004-04:00

My colleague Ryan DeShazer was reviewing some User Mental Model Maps today with me. We were both remarking at how well they align user needs to the design process. You know typical digital geek talk. He asked me "how do you align and sort all the data from user interviews?"

You do it through hard work and detailed analysis of dialogues, observations and interviews. It comes down to doing enough research, aligning distinct needs, finding patterns of behavior that begin to drive that insight of what user's challenges are. The topic is vast and detailed and a passion for many of the professionals who do this for a living.

There is a fantastic book called "Mental Models" by Indi Young on this topic! This is the definitive encyclopedia of creating user -driven maps to better align designs and digital experiences. Highly recommended.

Comics...what are they good for?

2009-07-16T07:46:00.004-04:00

I had collected comics when I was younger and always enjoyed browsing them. My daughter now has that collection and she enjoys them now in much the same way I did. But comics were never "rich enough" compared to real books, and the stories always felt short and disrupted. Recently however a friend of mine who is a professor of the history of french comic books recommended a graphic novel called "Alan's War". This is a true story of an american GI's experience in Europe during WWII and his expatriate years following the war are truly gripping. They are told in first person and I have to say, I'm now a fan of the comic book.

Additionally, I have always been wary of using comics to facilitate UX excercises. They seemed like too much work for too little pay off. But I must say the gift of comics is that they let you visually tell any story you want and portray subjects at any time in any place. You can't do that easily with any other visual tool. Drawing is the ultimate creative tool isn't it? The storyboards you portray in UX comics can be about expected outcomes, functional use cases, audience reactions to experiences or journeys through interface screens, allow stakeholders to think of and frame experiences and problems in new ways that are aligned to reality and keep the focus on the human factors at play.

I look forward to reading more graphic novels (I just bought a new one called "Photographer" from the same artist) and to experiment with comics as a UX tool.

Lo-fi Ideation

2009-07-15T19:38:00.006-04:00

Lo-fi ideas are simple. You sketch them quick and crude. You don't have everything figured out in a lo-fi sketch. But they are often edgy, interesting, and have the core spirit of an idea offered up in all its raw glory. Start lo-fi when you want to move the earth, make quick leaps, and get feedback without getting down into the weeds. And the best part about it...anyone can participate! No artistry required, just quick thinking and lots of divergent ideas.

Passion the Decision Maker

2009-07-14T19:29:00.006-04:00

We are all faced with making decisions. So how do we make them? Weigh the pros and cons? Base them on past experiences? Prioritize the outcomes on various levels and against various frameworks? There are numerous ways. But even after sorting through qualifying parameters there are many decisions in life or work that are hard to make.

On a recent Charlie Rose show he was interviewing, what I believe to be a key partner in one of the most successful movie making partnerships...his name escapes me...as does their work (DOH!) But during the interview he said one thing I thought was remarkable.

In regards to their partnership and making decisions they had this simple process: "To make the right decision or break a stalemate, go with the guy who has the most passion for the decision at hand."

Simple, clever and often easy to quantify in small groups: passion. Get some today.

The Critical Nature of Optimization

2009-07-13T07:07:00.007-04:00

Recently I had the opportunity to view the final testing and tweaking of car #607, a late 90's Le Mans veteran, Audi R8. This car just a few years ago was the most sophisticated race car available. A durable, incredibly well-built car as far as race cars go. Many would say the R8 is superior to the new generation of Audi R10s that is Audi's first foray into diesel race cars. Amongst the competition to which an entire engine would be sacrificed per race, this R8's engine can last forever. It is that good.

But the technology is only as good as the people putting it all together. Precision engineering and racing technology mirrors the creation of high-performance web sites for example, in a interesting way. For months and months the R8 team worked on getting the requirements nailed down, the parts together, assembling the framework and large components. Months passed as pieces of the puzzle like: wheels, drive train, engine, suspension, were individually tested. Some pieces were swapped out and replaced with items with different specs such that other components might work better. Months of this big picture adjustment occurred. Weeks after firing up the newly rebuilt engine,they started what is arguably the most important part of bring the Audi R8 to life: testing, tweaking and optimization. Down to the weight load on each wheel, which is adjusted by hand and a hex wrench to within millimeters of precision, every possible variable and system is tweaked to provide the best system performance for the next race. This is the portion of the build process where all of the team's experience comes into play. Optimization occurs for every track, every race and is configured down to being able to handle track conditions and the variables of say, the weather.

Without the optimization of the car, the R8 would be just another great race car with no real chance of winning a race. Much like launching a web site without spending time and effort going over usability, analytics strategy or thinking about optimization opportunitie

Gladwell's Outliers

2009-07-12T22:29:00.002-04:00

Finished this book months behind schedule. Like the other Gladwell books it is an easy read, insightful and mostly entertaining. The thesis in not so detailed terms is that geniuses, stars, proteges and the ultra successful one in a million stories are less about those people being gifted or somehow smarter than most people, it is more the sum of numerous factors in their lives: where they grew up, how they were raised, what era they were born in, what opportunities they had and what cultural factors influence their lives.

The best part of the book was the chapter that assessed several aviation disasters related to Korean Airline's horrible run of accidents from the 1960's through the 90's.

Of interest:

1. Most airline disasters are never linked to just one catastrophic event or mistake. Instead they are usually created by a chain of minor and manageable events, in fact on average seven events that occur in sequence that get decidedly worse and in fact cause human error to inevitably creep in.

2. Communication was the number one cause of these aviation disasters. And mostly the communication challenges were between the team/crew in the cockpit.

Both one and two are eerily familiar to anybody who has been in high-pressure situations where things start to go wrong. I don't mean to equate airline disasters with say a marketing rollout that goes wrong or a website launch that gets compromised but the inherent human pressures can be similar.

Maiden Journey

2009-07-11T21:13:00.000-04:00

This is to say the word "go". Let the posts flow.

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