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I’m a bit late in posting this, but as many people know, July 16 is the 40th anniversary of the incredible Apollo 11 mission.  America is still the only country on earth to have put a man on the moon, and even 40 years later this is an incredible achievement of engineering and the human spirit.

As a commemoration of the event, the JFK Library commissioned wechoosethemoon.org, an incredibly rich online experience in which a user can follow multiple aspects of the historic mission in real-time as they occurred 40 years ago.  With links for social media sites, non-linear navigation, and so many different ways to experience the event (photos, video, audio recordings, etc.), I think this site is a fitting tribute to the brave men and women of the Apollo programs.

I also believe this site represents the current pinnacle of what an online experience can be – totally connected in every sense of the word.  So enjoy this site from a historical standpoint or from a modern technology standpoint, but be sure to check it out because it’s pretty amazing.

A colleague of mine forwarded a great article to me called “Beware the Social Media Charlatans” by Robert Strohmeyer at PC World.  In it, Strohmeyer cautions against spending resources on the burgeoning social media consultants popping up all over the country.  The problem, as he sees it:

Combine a rapidly growing trend of social media adoption with an economy that has forced hundreds of thousands of workers to reinvent themselves as entrepreneurs, and you’ve got the perfect recipe for consultant overload.  Since nobody seems to know what the hell’s going on with Twitter anyway, nearly anyone can pass themselves off as an expert on the subject. So suddenly all those poseurs who might otherwise have bilked the hapless with offers of life coaching services or Feng Shui consulting have jumped on the social networking bandwagon. You can hardly swing a stick on the sidewalk nowadays without smacking one of these guys in the head.

While I haven’t personally been in a position to hire a social media consultant, I am ocassionally annoyed by the risible amount of self-promotion through social media channels these folks seem to require to keep their businesses going.  And I’m sure that if my livlihood depended on teaching businesses how to Twitter, I’d be pretty miffed about Mr. Strohmeyer’s article.  But then again, the term “consultant” has always been a loaded one, and I’m sure that most consultants have already come to grips with that in their own businesses.

The truth is, even at our agency, which is filled with a lot of very smart and creative people, social media has yet to be proven the panacea and/or the gold mine that a lot of marketers want you to believe.  It’s an important component to consider for some businesses and certainly valuable for individuals who want to take control of what the Internet is saying about them, but the metrics just aren’t there to support some of the radical positions I’ve heard at conferences and in the blogosphere.

But here’s my favorite part of the article:

The truth is that there are almost no rules in social networking that don’t already apply in just about any other social environment. A great many smart people have already written worthy perspectives on how to be a good citizen on Facebook and Twitter, and I hardly need to reiterate here what amounts to general common sense. Just as in life, the only rule that really matters is the Golden Rule. All the rest is either derivative, or flat-out nonsense, and you really shouldn’t be paying big bucks for either. [emphasis mine]

This is true.  Think about it.  Let’s say you went to a party where 10% of the people you knew intimately, 20% were best friends, colleagues, etc., and the remaining 70% were acquaintances, important people from another time in your life that you didn’t keep up with that often, and some people that you admire from afar as potential business connections.  I’d say that probably approximates the Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn profiles of many.  During that party, which let’s just say lasts an entire day, you update everyone you can about the fact that you’re speaking at a conference.  That’s normal, and good, right?  But here’s the thing – you probably wouldn’t tell everyone things like, “I just woke up,” or, “THESE ARE MY FIVE FAVORITE THINGS”, or “according to a survey I took, I am most like the Sex in the City character Gandalf the Orange” multiple times.

And you certainly wouldn’t want one of the people at that party to be a smooth-talking salesman for a company who’s product you might use but you don’t care much about, like soap, or paper, or maybe even an interactive agency or social media consultant!  If they had something valuable to say that was directly beneficial to you or interesting, that’s one thing, but you’d never invite a broadcaster of unwanted content to your party, at least not on purpose.  Your time is limited, and you don’t appreciate it being wasted.

Facebook recently included a “Hide” feature for removing status updates from those people that you want to stay “friends” with but are sick of hearing from.  I don’t know about you, but I welcomed the opportunity to shut out some of the noise so that I could spend my time keeping up with people who were interested in having an actual conversation.

A social media strategy for a company, or for an individual, requires the thoughtful guidance of someone who is skilled at building relationships.  And I like Robert Strohmeyer’s advice – the first rule to think about is the Golden one.

Sandisk recently launched a new campaign to boost its mini, micro, and standard size SD card sales for cell phones. And while I’d love to wax poetically about the viral nature of the flash-based site and the obviously well-researched and finely targeted campaign, I’m too busy playing around with the super cool ringtone generator.

Boasting an interface similar to that of a high-end audio editing application, but designed with stylized and easy-to-use controls for the average millenial, the ringtone generator is a lot of fun to play around with. The generator has over 30 high quality music samples that a user can mix and match on a 5 track timeline.

I’m sure that Sandisk spent a lot of money on the generator, which is a part of the site S.L.O.T – Serious Load of Thrills – site that anyone could at first glance mistake as a microsite built by MTV. The site, and the generator, are authentic and relevant enough to capture the attention of the millennial crowd. Most importantly, the site and generator offer legitimate entertainment and informational value to a generation with a lot of purchasing power and very sensitive BS detectors.

Bravo, Sandisk.

It’s usually a lot of fun for me when a new client website launches. There is so much that goes into it, from the initial sales effort, to ongoing consulting, creative work, development, quality testing, etc., etc., that when it finally goes live one gets an incredible feeling of accomplishment (and sometimes a healthy amount of relief). For the past several months, I’ve had the pleasure of working on changehappensindegrees.org – a funky site that is the beginning of a campaign focused on saving energy and money for a lot of people. The site is targeted at homeowners, who can reduce the amount of money spent on annually on energy bills by up to $500 simply by using their ceiling fans and thermostats correctly.

Hunter Fan recently commissioned several independent studies that confirmed with facts what many assumed to be the case – you can raise your thermostat in the summer, and lower it in the winter, if you’re properly using a ceiling fan to keep yourself comfortable. This saves energy and money while you feel basically the same level of comfort in your home. These studies caught the attention of celebrity environmentalist and successful actor Ed Begley, Jr., who agreed several months ago to endorse the campaign and who has begun a media tour in support of Look Up. What Ed, and everyone else involved in this project, is excited about is that unlike installing expensive solar panels, or reinsulating your home, using a ceiling fan and thermostat is something that most people can do with little trouble. It’s a small step that most can take to positively impact the planet and to save themselves some money.

We will be adding several interactive modules, including a region-specific home energy savings calculator, throughout the year, so I’ll keep everyone posted.

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May 22nd has been a deadline that has been staring me in the face for the last 7 weeks, starting with the signing of a proposal I wrote. Today is the launch of the “reskinned” HunterFan.com. It has been an ambitious journey, reskinning an entire site, plus completely designing and building 3 micro-sites for the same customer, all in less than 2 months! I’m proud of the work our excellent creative team has done, and I truly get fulfilled watching a project go from conception to completion. It was also cool to witness some hardcore legerdemain (YES! I used that word in real life!) by our programming staff to resolve server-side issues I won’t even pretend to comprehend.

The new homepage is much, much cleaner than the old version, and it has a variety of ways that a customer can navigate to the same information. As you can see, our client is really making a move to embrace the new green color, which I think works very well on the live site.

All we had time to do in this phase is redesign the homepage, add a few features, and add a new look and feel to the interior pages – still a huge improvement over the previous site. Of course, now comes the real work: Phase 2. Phase 2 will bring this site up to a new standard. Stay tuned!

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“Show me that smile…” I know that is the song that anyone born before 1980 undoubtedly had playing in their heads when they read the title of this post. Although I’d love to have some witty commentary on one of the legendary episodes from the early 80’s sitcom, I’m afraid that my title is alluding to something much less nostalgic (and notably lacking Kirk Cameron or Tracy Gold).

The agency I work for, now named n-tara Interactive, is growing by leaps and bounds. It’s very exciting to be working in an environment that is aggressively growing, because you always end up with something new to do, and limits are often tested. Our marketing department is working like crazy to crank out our new ID set and other materials, but the new logo and materials are just a small part of how our agency is growing. We’re adding more people, capabilities, and expertise, and running out of room in our building.

Where that affects me is that we’re obviously adding more clients with bigger budgets and more strategic objectives. It’s certainly kept me hopping and my blogging activity to a minimum, which in turn does not represent very well what I’m actually learning and experiencing on a daily basis. New trends in analytics, guided-selling, and the value of social media are all at the top of my mind, as well as the old favorites of agency project management and the proper way to manage client expectations (one in the same, to some degree). It’s become comical to me how much being a successful agency involves balancing bleeding-edge creative and technology with the basic principles of listening, managing expectations, doing your homework, and respecting those you work with.

Here’s an interesting thought for all of you career-minded folks out there: if you went back in time as your current self and was able to meet your self at 9 years old, what would your younger self think of your current self?

I recently read an article in this month’s Popular Photography that said a key to creativity is “unleashing your inner 9-year-old”. In other words, allowing your unrestricted creative side to take center stage, ignoring aspects of practicality and the limitations of your current camera technology.

It made me wonder, “Would my 9-year-old self think my current self is cool?” And also, “Is this even remotely important to the world of advertising and interactive media?”

I’ll address the latter first: business of any kind without creativity is dead. And I’m not just talking about artistic creativity here, but creativity with finances (within legal limits), HR, infrastructure, sales, project management, IT, etc., is all critical to a properly functioning business. As a former project manager, I can often let my obsession with proper details ruthlessly crush the big idea of a dreamer, simply because the idea at the time seems impractical. But I digress. Indeed, we need to be at least as creative as a 9-year-old in order to be successful.

Now, the former: would my 9-year-old self think my current self is cool? After much debate, I think little Andy sure would, at least for the most part. The reason I can be confident about this is that I’ve been blessed to do now what I’ve always thought I’d do: have a career in advertising and in sales. So on the job front I think I’d think I was pretty cool (follow that?). Sure, my job isn’t as cool as GI Joe’s, but I wasn’t really allowed to have many of those anyway (thanks Mom).

Plus, I’ve done quite a few things to keep my 9-year-old dreams alive. Through luck, I was able to marry a wonderful woman who grew up in Kenya, and thus in 2005 I was able to drive in the African bush in a Land Rover, one of my childhood fantasies. I’ve also purchased several large kites, and thus fulfilled my childhood dream of regularly being dragged across the ground by a giant kite. I have a son, some incredible friends, and I get to do crazy stuff like stand in a freezing waterfall in January with my best friends pointing and laughing. I feel like these things would be cool to my 9-year-old self, because although I’m constantly creating new goals and priorities, I still come back to wanting to do something crazy every now and then. I think the day that stops is the day I stop being creative.

That doesn’t mean that I’m never constrained by the harsh realities of life; far from it. But I think my 9-year-old self would understand that in order to buy a new bike, you have to mow the neighbor’s lawn to make some coin. I just want to keep some dreams alive and parts of life ridiculously fun.

What things do you do to keep your inner 9-year-old satisfied?

A recent study completed by the Social Science Research Network confirms another quirk of human behavior that is sure to get marketers’ attention. Evidently, if something is priced with an exact dollar amount (e.g., $1174 vs $1100), people are much less likely to debate the price. Indeed, the study found that if the price were “precise”, retailers and sellers could raise the price and people would be more likely to pay it without debating than if a round number were selected instead. People will actually pay more and ask fewer questions if the price isn’t a round number!

This, however, is my favorite part of the study (which, by the way, could benefit greatly from a table of contents and a better layout…ahh..science):

“These results have important substantive implications for buyers and sellers (and their agents). Buyers (and their agents) should be more cautious in their price magnitude judgments in light of our results. Sellers (and their agents) can strategically “precise up” their prices, i.e. choose a higher precise price rather than a lower round price.”

Behold the power of the information age. This is one case where knowing more will really pay off. I know that I certainly won’t look at a price of $150 the same way again.

High-five to these guys for bringing the study to my attention. Thanks!

Have you ever had the experience of working on a project or presentation, and you can’t really get any momentum until you get a draft of the document done first and can “shoot holes in it”? For me, this book has summed up what I’ve always felt but haven’t been able to express succinctly: “form follows failure”.

I’m about 3/4 through this interesting book, which as a history junkie, I initially picked up to satisfy my need to read something fairly dry before heading to bed. What I discovered is a rather entertaining essay on the evolution and science of design. Henry Petroski uses case studies on how common objects (the paper clip, zipper, fork, masking tape, etc.) have been developed over time as a background for his overall thesis, which is that form does not follow function, but rather failure.

What he means by this that rather than necessity being the “mother of invention,” failure of a product or service to perform in some way is what drives an innovator to develop a solution. In short, being annoyed with stuff that doesn’t work is what motivates us to create something new that fulfills our personal or collective expectations.

What’s exciting to me about this argument, although penned by Petroski in 1994, is that it absolutely supports the “always in beta” development model that is the current standard for progressive web sites and applications (such as Gmail, iStockphoto, etc.). You throw something out there, listen to people complain about what doesn’t work, and then you innovate, and repeat the cycle ad infinitum. What is fantastic about the internet age is that this cyclical development process can occur in real-time, and the benefits to clients and users are conveyed at the same lightning speed.

I can’t mention this topic without paying homage to David Armano and Critical Mass for their inspirational “always in beta” website and experience at the 2007 Forrester Consumer Forum (I had the privilege of being interviewed live by David at the event). The website is now evolving (who would have thought?) beyond it’s original intent of a “new idea” at the Forum into a real-time communications portal for Critical Mass.

To tie this all together, offline projects, and really all design challenges that an agency tackles, are subject to the rule of “form follows failure”. At an agency, we listen, we create, our internal reviews and client feedback tell us what’s wrong with our creation, and we continue to hone and refine until the final design accomplishes all that it can. I guess adding “routinely and adeptly fails on all initiatives” is a great line to my resume after all.