August 2007 Archives
AdWeek reports that the NFL is taking back control of its website from CBS Sports. For the fan, this means increased film footage, both current and archival, which represents a tremendous plus.
For the league, this represents the next step in gaining control of what could be considered its intellectual property.
"The ability to control your own destiny and be able to experiment and invest in building a robust platform was something we thought was best doing by ourselves," said Hans Schroeder, vp and gm of NFL.com. "It was hard to figure out a way to evolve the platform when you're doing it through a third party."Let's hope this great league walks the fine line of journalistic integrity in reporting on itself.
Seth Godin blogs on cheap advertising (off-peak AM radio, inexpensive banners), raising the question: do cheaper media choices dictate sub-quality messaging? I don't think so. Clear messages can cost much less than even the cheapest media campaign; many times it's just a matter of investing a little time and brainpower.
Even the classic "I've fallen and I can't get up" cable ads resonated.
Ben Yoskovitz, in his brilliant Instigator Blog, writes about beating writer's block - or blogger's block, I guess you could say.
Ben's recommended place to start: commenting in other blogs. When you're moved by another post, quickly fire off your blog entry. Here's his style:
"I read it and immediately decided to respond with this post. I didn’t spend a ton of time thinking about it, evaluating every angle or trying to write something perfect. I just wrote it. Quick and dirty."Here's an idea, too: you can go outside the web to, say, a book, and become inspired.
Smart people will tell you that if you're selling a service (a broad term, I know) you need to focus on selling the process and not the product.
What they mean is that you sell your expertise and experience along with the thing that you deliver to them. There's a couple of reasons for this, I think.
One, your product, whether it's a logo, a marketing plan, or a legal document, has more value in the eyes of your customer if they understand that there's a process behind it and that you, as expert, know this process inside and out.
Secondly, process can be a safety net for your product as well. If your customer doesn't like your product, take them through the process for how you got from point to point to the product. You may not change their mind on the product, but you'll start a dialog. If they're astute, they will ask questions and point things out as you retrace your steps that will help you with round two of revisions.
Todd Henry, in a recent Accidental Creative podcast talks about process versus product in terms of creative individuals and their managers, and how if each will look to the process, better results can be had for the entire team - the same scenario as above.
For managers, Todd points out the need to understand that process and product are often one and the same in the mind of a creative individual. If you don't like what you're getting, ask them to take you through their process and (tactfully) point out along the way where they can think differently. Likewise, Todd calls on the creative to constantly promote their process so that coworkers, bosses or clients don't "get lost in the product."
