El Gaffney

Length Matters

This is a short post about short-form content consumed in large doses on the web (in one sitting in front of my laptop each time). (And with oh so provocative a title!) It made me think about how much length (of video content in particular) matters given the many different situations, mindsets, needs or more importantly from an entertainment perspective wants and constraints (time, screen size, ADD, etc.) which people bring when they “go online” every day.

It started late Sunday afternoon after getting home from watching the Euro 2008 Final. I read a post over at Paul’s blog about Inside Sudan on VBS.tv. I watched the 5 approximately 4 and a half minute about Sudan and then moved over to Vice’s Guide to North Korea and knocked out the 13 part series (average 4 to 5-minutes each) like it was my job. (Actually, that’d be a pretty sweet job - Shane Smith’s job or a job watching all VBS’s content.)

Then on Monday night, I was exhausted but then as I was catching up on Kanye’s blog (by the way, peep this ridiculous thing he just did for Absolut’s Artist Series), he noted how Jay-Z killed in the U.K. So after the controversy, I wanted to see for myself. And I did. For almost an hour (ending after midnight), I watched the 9 parts (median time of ~8 minutes each) of Jay-Z live at Glastonbury on YouTube.

My feeling is (and behavior would suggest) that the smaller chunks of video content are more appealing to a time-crunched (perception even if not reality) web audience because they seem more digestible/watchable/doable. (Lunchable?) In fact, I think a short piece of content (like sampling) is critical to getting people to “invest in the rest.” (I’m considering trademarking this phrase.) I, personally, am also more likely to get through books with more, shorter chapters than few long ones. Each I read is a sense of accomplishment. However, I’m not buying a book based on this criteria. On the Interweb, most often you get it all for free, so engagement is more important. Thus, how the content is served up is more important.

One difference between the two viewing experiences is that on YouTube the next clip played without me having to click. This was not a necessity to keep me engaged but certainly a nice to have. Plus, I didn’t necessarily have to watch the performance the entire time rather could listen with surfing, so the autoplay was nice. However, back to the point, I couldn’t help but wonder if our Brawny Academy back at Fallon would have had more success had it made its ~15-minute episodes shorter (if we had cut each in half). It’s not about the sum total time of the content (which is the same either way), it’s about the length of its parts (which can be made more palatable, enticing to the audience).

Tags: fallon, kanye, vice, video

Stop and Watch The Advertising

Because we in the industry (especially those of us outside of the creative department), don’t take the time to stop and look at “the work” out in the world often enough. Especially advertising that’s not from our clients’ competitors. Especially advertising that doesn’t come from Apple or Nike. Especially advertising from “boring” or “un-sexy” industries. And especially advertising that’s not on during the Super Bowl (or now March Madness)…

I have decided to embed the most recent spot from my ex-agency, Fallon, and my ex-client, Travelers Insurance. Even though I had absolutely nothing to do with it, I do know what the conversations that led to this spot were and many of the challenges that came with it. I have been expecting to see “a commercial that celebrates the return of the umbrella logo from Citibank” for a while now and was pleasantly surprised when I caught it on TV last week for the first time. Because I’m closer to this brand certainly than the average person, it’s hard for me to be objective but will say that one thing Travelers seems to understand is the importance of execution. Sure its spots have been idea-driven, but the way they bring these ideas to life has now been consistently high-quality from a production standpoint. And for me, they are more and more standing out as the premium insurance company vs. State Farm, All-State, Liberty Mutual, Geico (yes, different biz model I know), Nationwide, etc. Hopefully that doesn’t just lead to “I’m going to pay higher premiums” perceptions, rather it will make people think Travelers policies and customer service are modern/superior/etc.

Would love to hear outsiders’ opinions. But the creatives were lucky I wasn’t there or that production budget may have been spent getting the rights to make it shine and shine together…

Tags: fallon, travelers

Do Day: Live with Aki

Do Day is back again with a profile of a super-doer. He’s a dude I’ve talked about before (and thanked) as the founder of Fallon’s planning blog (he is AKI SYSTEMS 2600), a web-maven (who put me onto netvibes and many a YouTube video), a mentor and friend in MN (and still). So of course I was planning on interviewing him at some point in the future but when I realized it was already Wednesday (that 3-day weekend fooled me)—and another week was in danger of passing without featuring someone who has personally inspired me to stop talking about it and be about it—I hollered at Aki. And unsurprisingly, I found him doing something new.

I caught him on his Yahoo! Live Channel (which I encourage you to check out), and I got him chatting for 40 minutes (as you can see by the time-stamps below). Unfortunately there’s no way record a video conversation, so we kicked it old school and IMed with our live images up on screen. As you’ll see, he didn’t even need my “questions” (I’m still learning how to interview); rather, he just riffed some great stuff off the dome. And I’ve got it here for you to feast on…

What’s your philosophy when it comes to doing?
[ 4:30] akispicer I’ll quote yoda: “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
[ 4:30] akispicer Can’t think this stuff to paralysis.
[ 4:31] akispicer Fast to beta…stick and move. And honestly, I dunno if the agency/client pace can afford that kind of speed.

What’s on the web have you been interested in lately?
[ 4:32] akispicer Lately? It can shift every week, I have a short attention span with web toys.
[ 4:32] akispicer This for sure. (POST INTERVIEW INSERT: HE’S TALKING ABOUT YAHOO! LIVE.)
[ 4:32] akispicer I’ve noted that we spent some thousands on a vid conference room here…
[ 4:33] akispicer Noone knows how to turn the damn room on.
[ 4:33] akispicer And suddenly all that is felled by democratic technologies like this.
[ 4:33] akispicer No software…no learning curve…no equipment…no manual.
[ 4:34] akispicer Just click and things work right out of the box.
[ 4:36] akispicer Other than this tech…Slideshare…
[ 4:36] akispicer I like how Slideshare is pooling thinking…
[ 4:37] akispicer I am using Slideshare like a Google…looking up topics and seeing how other people are thinking and
[ 4:37] akispicer responding to the same topic.

What have you been doing outside of Fallon?
[ 4:37] akispicer Outside Fallon…Planning For Good.
[ 4:37] akispicer 1500 of the brightest minds in advertising want to collaborate with good causes and make a difference.
[ 4:38] akispicer Ed Cotton has been taking the lead…others of us chip in
[ 4:38] akispicer I am trying to harness the same model for local solutions.
[ 4:39] akispicer We’ve been learning alot about actually DOING what we push in all our decks to clients.

How do you not get overwhelmed by all the new online technologies (”toys”)?
[ 4:45] akispicer It can take a long minute to check emails, check RSS feeds, click on “time waster” links I get IM’d…

How do you make that minute matter (everything you put into del.icio.us, and on the blog, and that you read)?
[ 4:46] akispicer I definitely notice my attention span shortening…but I try to provide value to clients and others thru
[ 4:46] akispicer client blog posting, trends presentations, and day-to-day strategy decks
[ 4:47] akispicer The time suck pays back when you have to deliver an answer to a complex problem and you have all the refs
[ 4:47] akispicer ready.
[ 4:47] akispicer More of my time is being spent with FILING AND LIBRARY RECALL SYSTEMS
[ 4:47] akispicer tagging, using consistent names and redistributing info to parties that could use it
[ 4:48] akispicer Facebook and blogs serve as a broadcast system so that I don’t have to find the people in my networks, I just
[ 4:48] akispicer have to order and organize for their digestion. Its all about connecting the dots for others.
[ 4:49] akispicer My main issue with newspapers, magazines and TV is that I cannot tag and file and forward insightful info.

How does all this impact your role as a planner (POST INTERVIEW INSERT: Planning Director)?
[ 4:50] akispicer I see my role here and with clients as a reporter, or guide.
[ 4:51] akispicer I like immersing myself into these nets and coming back to “report”
[ 4:51] akispicer Clients and agencies are intimidated by these technologies…and often, they just need a Virgil to guide them
[ 4:52] akispicer I like the process of experimentation and synthesis - simplifying it into language that is universal, really.

So everyone gets up to speed and things don’t get lost in translation (like from acct to creative or marketing to operations)?
[ 4:57] akispicer Well, I think social computing holds the potential to get back to communicating, actually.
[ 4:57] akispicer Take today with Y! Live…the designer hit me up on my channel and we chatted.
[ 4:58] akispicer He answered my questions, he asked me a few.
[ 4:58] akispicer When is the last time the head of a major brand “communicated” directly with a customer/user/prospect/person?
[ 4:59] akispicer Social computing FORCES brands and creators to get out here and talk. It is forcing politicians to do the same
[ 5:00] akispicer It is forcing agencies to learn a new approach…
[ 5:00] akispicer Yeah, I think you and I and many others are digital natives so it is not so awkward to imagine getting on our
[ 5:01] akispicer websites and blogs and talking back. Or risking questions from open web.

Risking?
[ 5:02] akispicer We are a bit more improvisational and free form…that is considered a “risk” by most clientele and brands and
[ 5:02] akispicer politicians.
[ 5:03] akispicer Most brands could never do what Y! Live just did, which is open up the windows and let me and you peek behind
[ 5:03] akispicer the curtain and just hold a one-to-one conversation.
[ 5:03] akispicer And that simple tactic makes me a believer and evangelist…

What other brands are bringing people in like this?
[ 5:05] akispicer Much of the innovation is happening out here, amongst people, not necessarily among the big brands.
[ 5:06] akispicer I liked Virgin America’s recent appeal to the masses to get the DOT to greenlight VA to fly.

And what about Brainfood? That seems like an example of you putting it (all) out there for people (including the competition) to see.
[ 5:10] akispicer I have a fundamental issue with hiding information.
[ 5:11] akispicer We all do so much research and info gathering…only to present to 6 people and store/hide the insights away.
[ 5:11] akispicer Brainfood is really about making what we do open and present before the whole agency.
[ 5:12] akispicer Its also about getting creativity and ideas out of the ghetto of “creative departments”.
[ 5:12] akispicer Everyone at the agency contributes. Everyone is important. Let’s share ideas together. And eat free lunch, too
[ 5:13] akispicer I have found that agencies are packed with pockets of innovators in the interactive basements, in the
[ 5:13] akispicer coordinator desks, in the production offices.
[ 5:14] akispicer And these pockets of energy and passion and insight often go untapped
[ 5:15] akispicer So I view my role as trying to source and direct these pockets to make sparks happen.

Hopefully you all will agree, this seemed like a perfect way to end. Thanks Aki. See you soon…without any travel!

Tags: action, agency, fallon, web2.0

Back From The Whale’s…

Surprisingly I did not have any desire to bust out those lines these past few days at the AAAA Planning Conference in San Diego. What I have been doing is catching up with old friends and meeting virtual friends, people I read and respect, and some other mofos without blogs.

Highlights other than taking home a silver Jay Chiat award for Bahamavention (well, not quite home since Fallon took the actual hardware) include:

Speeches by Eric Ryan, Method and Sir Kens A Lot (can you mess with a knight’s name like that? oops - Ken Robinson
Breakout sessions led by Scott Lukas of Dosage and Mark Earls (linked above) of Herd Consulting and book
Dinners with peeps at our LA office

I’ve been blogging in a private space for Deutsch (yes, we’re a little late to the conversation, but taking the right step in testing out/getting comfortable before jumping in), so will transfer some of my posts from there and I twittered (twitter link) Day 2.

As a tease to more comprehensive and detailed posting, I kick it off with the same video that opened the conference on Creating Possibilities. After watching, is there any question that we are emotional beings first?

Tags: bahamas, deutsch, fallon, friends, planning, sandiego

Bahamavention Is Back

A moment for self- and others-congratulations. As those who know me know, I spent the last couple of years in Minneapolis working at Fallon and specifically on three great pieces of business. I use agency speak because it was not three companies nor only three people. I spent my days helping Purina Beneful, Travelers, and The Islands Of The Bahamas find the best way to move each of their respective brands forward. And I got to collaborate with some amazing people both at the agency (including the guys who did the Citi Identity Theft work) and client (including the visionary Director General).

So all sappiness aside, The Bahamas team got some really good news this weekend. Our TV campaign was recognized in Cannes with Silver Lions. The spots - Monte, Maureen, and Lyle - were in some really great company (The Mac and PC campaign and the Cingular dropped calls campaign, which you know from the US as well as other commercials from around the world). See the list here.

I’m really proud helping the Ministry of Tourism see the value in a differentiating idea both for the category and the broad advertising landscape. (Our integrated campaign had print, OOH, Online, a 30-minute infomercial, and Bahamavention kit.) Hopefully a planning award or two is in our future. Now here’s Monte:

Tags: awards, bahamas, fallon, planning