Bad, Bad Ads Manifesto, Chapter 1.
March 21st, 2008
Online ads have been driving me nutso-bonkers long enough. It’s time that I started griping about them in my blog, which, of course, will cause the entire industry to change overnight. So here goes. The fundamental principles of the Bad, Bad Ads Manifesto are:
1. It can’t possibly make sense to try to sell someone something by annoying the hell out of them.
2. It can’t possibly make sense to put ads on your site that entice people to leave your site.
3. It can’t possibly make sense to let another company design a huge chunk of any of your web pages.
4. Getting a click isn’t the point…unless your job is to get the click. And then it becomes the only point.
5. All of your ads have already failed waaaaay more than they have succeeded.
Let’s explore principle numbers 1 & 2, shall we? C’mon, there are pictures and everything…
More invisible than a banner ad! Able to leap right-column skyscrapers in a single bound!
February 27th, 2008
Why look, up in the sky…isn’t that the flashing “New!” graphic coming from the commissioner’s office? There must be a conversion problem in Gotham! This is a job for…
I’m in love with Charles Handy…and the idea of bonsai businesses
February 26th, 2008
So I’m listening to NPR in the car yesterday (as one does when one is of a certain age and has become totally flippin’ allergic to commercials). Marketplace was on (btw, don’t you love the names of the people on NPR? I had a friend who named his goldfish after them. The ones that survived longest were Bob Edwards and Snik Paprikash. I think Mandalite Del Barco met an untimely demise and subsequent ride in the porcelain funeral home fun-swirl machine).
Charles Handy (who I must admit I never heard of before–he’s the founder of the London Business School and a professor at Claremont Graduate University’s Drucker School of Business) came on to do a little sidebar story and I fell ass over teakettle in love.
The Persona Non Grata article is a gift. Really.
February 26th, 2008
Bad, bad blogger. It’s been far too long since my last underpants entry. And what jolted me out of my blog lethargy? You guessed it. The ongoing fracas from that Persona Non Grata article in Interactions magazine by Steve Portigal. The one where he says personas suck. And that we should find other ways to communicate what we know about users, like, for example, stories.
Here’s the deal…he’s got a great point, and I actually kinda furiously like the article because it reflects what annoys me about persona efforts (not personas themselves).
Bad words at work are SO good.
October 31st, 2007
There’s proof! Swearing at work can be a-ok. Check it out: What the bleep? Swearing at work can inspire teamwork.
Which is a damn good thing for me, because when I get excited, I get a terrible potty mouth (or, now that I’m all validated and shit, I should say a ‘fabulous potty mouth.’) I love this study (and the conclusions) because.
An interview on personas and marketing with…ME!
August 22nd, 2007
I did an interview with my friend and colleague Sally McKenzie on personas and marketing. We talked about how marketers should be involved in the persona creation process, common questions and concerns about the use of personas, the relationship between personas and other tools (like market segmentation), and how to ensure that a persona effort goes well. Check out the entire interview or click the ‘post continues…’ link below for an excerpt.
User is a four-letter word: the cow argument
August 20th, 2007
The word “user” is such a bad word. And, by the way, so is the word “customers.” They are confusing, arbitrary, totally flexible and, worse, a great excuse to never think about the real people who use or buy or enjoy or hate your products. More stakeholders at more companies ignore real people by talking about “users” and “customers” than I care to count. What’s the best way to convince people you are paying attention while ignoring everything outside the glorious gray walls of your corporate headquarters? Throw the words “users” and “customers” around. This posting is the cow example, with a nice dollop of Dr. Seuss. I’m sure there will be more postings on this topic, because I am positive I will continue to be annoyed about this and will be forced to vent this frustration in the form of various analogies.
More on personas. I guess it was inevitable.
July 11th, 2007
After writing a gigantic book on personas, you would think I’d be completely out of things to say on the topic. But no. There’s more. Like, for example, the things I have to say about the book itself, and why it’s so loooooong, and why that ended up being a good thing for most people.
Travel Thing 3: The polar opposite of singing ‘Happy Birthday’ at work.
July 3rd, 2007
If you’ve read Travel Thing 1 and Travel Thing 2, you now know all about the elements of my Copenhagen trip that drove me nuts. Guess what? The bitchfest is over. Thing 3 is something lovely.
Travel Thing 2: Copenhagen Snorty-Cabbie and his Unpleasant Underpants.
June 15th, 2007
This is “Thing 2″ in a series of three travel Things related to my trip, last year, to Copenhagen. Thing 2 is the second icky thing. Thing 3 will be the lovely thing related to the Customer Sense conference and the people who put it on. So enjoy the vitriol of Thing 2, and stay tuned for the lilting positivity of Thing 3.
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