I'm a recovering blamer.

One thing I've learned lately is what my grandmother used to say to me all the time when I was a little kid, "It's nobody's fault but your own!" Of course back then I didn't listen to her because it was way too easy to blame someone or something else when things didn't go as planned.

It's that first self-deception we make when we are standing at the fork in the road. One way leads to truth, the other to blame. When we chose self-deception, however innocent, all that follows is the need justify the self-deception and that is where we get off track and lose personal accountability and perspective.

I just read the book, Leadership and Self-Deception, by the Arbinger Institute. It's a quick read, but more importantly, it's easy to apply the key insight into everyday life. The book shows how "most personal and organizational problems result from a pervasive yet little-known problem called 'self-deception.' It undermines personal achievement and organizational performance."

So I will be more introspective, more honest with myself about the choices I make and why I make them, and less likely to blame others when things don't go my way.

Leadership is setting goals and objectives and understanding the results. You can't learn if you blame. Which leads me to realization that my grandmother was right after all and I can't believe I'm admitting that.

Getting started in Social Media

On Saturday, I gave a speech to a group of accomplished young advertising and marketing professionals. The emphasis of my talk was my career of 26 years and how advertising/marketing has changed and forced me to reinvent my career to be successful. And the driving force behind all this, social media, and my agency's perspective on it and what we are doing to be competitive in this crazy new environment.

Afterward, I left a pile of business cards and welcomed anyone with questions to contact me. Here is one question I received and my answer follows. (I share this because the purpose of this blog is to record the trials and tribulations of an old dog learning new tricks, others might have helpful additions or suggestions and are welcome to add their thoughts)

"Thank you so much for coming to speak to Ad 2 today. I really learned a lot from your presentation.

I'm the one who works for a very traditional advertising agency and I'd like to help them move forward into doing social media work. They are all scared of new media/social media right now so I need to start educating them so they warm them up to this idea. The catch is I'm not educated enough on my own and don't have any personal experience to draw from. Any ideas on how to learn enough about this myself with out actually doing this kid of work to be able to start convincing them this is something we should pursue?

Any ideas would be helpful. Thank you again!"

Thanks for the kind words. First, I applaud you for recognizing the status quo will not help your career or company you work for. My advice is pretty simple and falls into two buckets.

Start small—it’s easy to get overwhelmed with what you don’t know. Start with Seth Godin’s Meatball Sunday and Tribes books. They both quick reads but chock full of references that will take you further. Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody is an important read as well from the psychographic vs. Sociographic marketing perspective. Wall Street Journal and New York Times and Business Week all have interesting articles written from a business perspective that are great sources of knowledge—always look at the world from the client perspective.

Find kindred spirits—people you work with, friends, etc. Start sharing and asking questions. You’ll find there are a lot of people out there like you and the power of this group will change your life because either you will feel empowered to change your company or find a new one to work for that fits your career vision.

Study your industry, your client’s industries, and the consumer. Your industry—try to understand who is doing what and why. How are marketing firms adjusting? What happens to those who do nothing--can be powerful arguments for you with your management. Client’s—look for examples where their competition is doing something differently—again gives you the excuse to at least bring it up. The consumer—they are the one driving this bus...watch and try to predict where they are going.

Last but not least, try little things first and then build. Momentum will follow.

Allen and Pete: A Snapshot.

I was reading some emails today between Pete and Allen regarding social media and marketing and it occurred to me that this makes a really good example of how we work, all the time, everyday. I thought I would share...

Allen sent this out about a piece of research he had found.

“Social media is an important shift, as it summarizes the importance of interaction, the consumer and the community. The term emphasizes the idea that as a collective it can have as much impact as any traditional media platform.

In truth, to claim social media as “new” is slightly misleading. From the beginning, the Internet was founded on message boards, chat rooms and peer to peer communication. What has changed is the mass involvement that modern social platforms inspire.

Contributing to the Internet has never been as accessible and less technical. Innovations in web development, computing technology and the proliferation of broadband have come together (to) drive monumental consumer take up. This is why the phenomenon of social media is important now – it has the potential to impact on all our media consumption therefore shifting the emphasis from professional content producers to the consumer.”

-Universal McCann study

Pete's response.

Absolutely no question: what’s changed is the ease of distribution, not the behavioral drivers behind it. This is why WOM has existed as long as human beings have been able to communicate. The trap we fall into now, with all the shiny objects of the last 5-10 years, is in looking at it too narrowly—ie, only in terms of the online experience (and sometimes even forgetting newer mobile technologies)—thereby adding one more stupid silo to the brand marketing mix. (That’s also why marketers who obsess about “digital digital digital” conjure up images in my mind of marketers in the 1950s who might have similarly obsessed about vacuum tubes or the size of a TV antenna: that ain’t the point!)

The very important corollary to all of this is that we can’t talk about “social media and marketing” while staying stuck in the idea that we each develop attachments to brands merely as atomistic individuals (“Brand X satisfies my needs and desires”) with little or no thought to the social dimensions of brand meaning. In my opinion, this is probably the most powerful and profound part of the work we’ve been doing over the last 4-5 months, and that I look forward to developing further for our clients and WG. –Pete

It is exciting to be around people like this because they do this all day long. What will tomorrow bring?

Our new baby is born!

WonderGroup Grows Social Media & Marketing Services

WonderGroup, the Cincinnati-based advertising agency widely known for its work in marketing strategies to youth and families, has announced new and specialized services in social media strategy development, execution and measurement.

With the aim of helping its regional, national and international clients strengthen brand engagement and advocacy with millions of consumers, WonderGroup will infuse new social media and marketing strategies into traditional advertising, promotions and interactive media. The new capabilities will help clients accelerate brand awareness, increase trial and strengthen brand volume initiatives.

Spearheading the new offering at the agency are two new senior managers:

Pete Healy, V.P. Social Media and Marketing. Healy was formerly a WonderGroup client as the VP of Marketing at Perfetti Van Melle USA, where he directed marketing for the Mentos and Airheads brands. While there, he was integrally involved in the “Mentos Geyser craze” of 2006 and the subsequent “Trevor the Mentos Intern” online campaign, both of which attracted worldwide attention as social marketing successes. Prior to joining Perfetti Van Melle, Healy was VP of Marketing at Jelly Belly Candy Company in California, where he developed and directed high-engagement strategies for the Jelly Belly brand in the U.S. and internationally.

Allen McCormick, V.P. Marketing. McCormick, also a former WonderGroup client as the Marketing Director at US Playing Card Company, has been heavily engaged in the development, execution and measurability of social media campaigns. McCormick also worked for Procter and Gamble as a Client Director, with the social marketing word-of-mouth venture known as Tremor. While there, he spearheaded many efforts with packaged goods, entertainment and the auto industry. McCormick previously worked in marketing roles at Revlon and led the marketing strategy development, evolution of direct marketing, and CRM efforts for both Sony PlayStation and SeaWorld.

McCormick and Healy are supported by a WonderGroup team of experienced social, interactive and account professionals. The agency’s clients include ConAgra Foods, Kellogg’s, Cincinnati Bell Communications, Topps, Perfetti Van Melle, SunnyD Beverages, Evenflo and other well-known consumer brands.

For additional information on WonderGroup services, including social media and marketing strategies, please contact:

Greg Livingston
President
WonderGroup
513.357.2950
glivingston@wondergroup.com

What a waste.

It's a shame. Think about all the money spent this election year on campaign ads designed to impugn and destroy the character and reputation of their opponents. There's no creativity here, just savage bare knuckle blows delivered again and again without mercy. Without truth. Without grace. Make it stop.

What could that money have done to change our world for the positive?

We'll never know.