Media watch: Recently, I've had a blast on Twitter finding my favourite media personalities and places. It's made me especially media conscious of late so here's a brief run down on what I'm reading, listening to, and watching.
Words: I'm in between Mojos (new one must be close) so I've been reading a heap of things at once:
I'm enjoying Malcolm Gladwell's David and Goliath book. It's subtitled Underdogs, misfits and the art of battling giants. Gladwell's style of writing is very conversational, which makes it easy to pick up from time to time.
Karl Pilkington's The Meaning Of Life was a present from Jade for Father's Day. He's weird man and he's a weird man but he makes disturbing sense disturbingly regularly - "They say having kids is a life changing experience but so is losing a leg". WHAAT???
If you read my Baggy Trousers blog http://baggytrewsers.blogspot.co.nz/
then you already know I'm hooked on Velocity by Ahmed/Olander - it's a m a z i n g! I'm rereading it before giving it to a friend to read.
Finally - I've started reading Dr Ian Hunter's Imagine (what Wedgwood, Da Vinci, Mozart, Eiffel, Disney and many others can teach us about innovation). The doctor is a recent acquaintance- he gave me a copy of his book when I saw him recently- much appreciated Ian!
Sounds: As you all know I can't live without music. Currently I've been listening to a pile of new CDs - Steven Wilson, Pineapple Thief, Jack White, Dungen, Anathema, Mastodon, Shearwater, Opeth, Ray LaMontagne, Jake Bugg and some old Pink Floyd albums.
If you read my music blog http://googoogarjoob.blogspot.co.nz/ you also know that I'm working my way through my singles collection - currently up to Wilson Pickett.
Views: I've had a yearning to watch Samuel L Jackson movies of late so Snakes On A Plane (a terrific film), Shaft, Coach Carter and others. TV series - The Mentalist season five has just been completed and as regular readers know I'm working my way through Seinfeld again - up to season 7 now. It IS the greatest sitcom ever!
Love and peace - Wozza
I wrote a post recently about my experiences regarding the past ERO visits I'd been involved in.
I am well aware that the blogosphere has been holding its collective breath for my report of my most recent bout of ERO.
Except...I have to exercise a large dollop of discretion and self censorship for this post.
All I can say is that it was... underwhelming.
They seemed to have little capacity to review a technologically innovative school so the less said the better.
And that's all I'm saying - as my mother said - if you can't say anything nice - don't say anything at all.
So - Next topic: We have a visit to school next week by our Minister of Education.
I've written about Hekia Parata in the past on my Baggy Trousers blog and so...I'm going to exercise another large dollop of self restraint on this one too.
Instead - another next topic: I wrote a post recently about new forms of advertising in the digital age. Here's an excerpt:
The best advertising isn't advertising so says Chapter three in Velocity (the brilliant book by Ahmed/ Olander).
The goal is to create connections with customers and earn their loyalty by serving them;
This means a shift from selling a product to selling a service.
At a recent school assembly we were shown an advert made by women's personal care brand Always.
http://www.always.com/en-us/home.aspx
You'll be stunned to know that the video itself wasn't about personal care products for women at all!
Instead it takes on the outdated idea of 'running like a girl, throwing like a girl' and promotes the worthy concept of women's self esteem. A self esteem that has been battered by the 'throw like a girl' pejorative term (or so says the advert).
I haven't heard the term for years but there you go.
As we were watching the advert I was getting the growing feeling that I was being manipulated. I couldn't help wondering what this video was selling. What was Always?
Unlike the ANZ advert that I featured recently - this one was more insidious. The brand name Always featured only at the end and only in a minor way.
See what you think.. http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/07/01/viral-video-of-week-an-ad-that-challenges-what-it-means-to-throw-like-a-girl/
This article mentioned a Dove advert that also effectively targets women's perceptions of themselves:
Clearly these are great examples of the shift from selling a product to selling a service. Who wouldn't want women to feel better about themselves?
I'm sure the Always advert's makers would be delighted to know that their advert was being shown to a school assembly.
My question - when does selling a service stop and selling a product start?
Love and peace - Wozza
The best advertising isn't advertising so says Chapter three in Velocity (the brilliant book by Ahmed/ Olander).
This is the third new law for a world gone digital*.
The goal is to create connections with customers and earn their loyalty by serving them.
This means a shift from selling a product to selling a service.
I like this. I think it's right too.
Jeff Bezos (Amazon.com) says 'advertsing is the price you pay for having an unremarkable product'.
Nice.
I was again sucked into watching some of the Commonwealth games on TV in the last month. I didn't want to but I'm glad I did because I saw some remarkable advertising from my bank - the ANZ bank.
Watch this:
You're made of pretty stony stuff if that doesn't melt your heart.
ANZ ran a series of adverts on this theme, using a variety of NZ games athletes.
Genius.
I have had zero loyalty to the ANZ bank to this point. I was a National Bank customer before ANZ swallowed them up.
Watching these adverts made me warm to ANZ. They provided a service and then told me about it.
The best advertising isn't advertising.
Love and peace - Wozza
* The second law? It's easier done than said. Just do it!
I'm reading an amazing book at the moment: Velocity by a couple of young whipper snappers - Ajaz Ahmed and Stefan Olander.
It's subtitled The seven new laws for a world gone digital. Don't let that put you off; the seven, the new and digital are tags to get you hooked.
I'm not sure where the idea that seven was the desired standard for these things. I'm pretty sure the seven deadly sins came before the dwarves but I'm a little hazy on these things.
Whatever, everybody's at it these days. I mentioned in my last posting on my Baggy Trousers blog that I'd finished reading Deepak Chopra's The 7 Spiritual Laws of Superheroes and of course there are Seven:11's; seven days in a week; seven notes on a musical scale; seven wonders of the world; the Buddha first walked seven steps; the magnificent seven; highly effective people have seven habits according to Stephen Covey; and, of course, there is that enigma wrapped in a riddle that is Seven Sharp.
But I digress.
Velocity is written by two whizz kids. Ajaz Ahmed founded AKQA (https://www.akqa.com/). Have a look if you get a chance - their business is future innovation so it's interesting to see what their website looks like - big on graphics, high on mystery.
Stefan Olander has one of those what-the-hell-does-that-actually-mean job titles at Nike - Vice president of digital sport.
Together they talk about stuff in Velocity and it's terrific.
Lesson one/Law One (in a chapter called a Smith and Weston beats four aces) - trying to protect what you've already got is a mistake.
They obviously mean in a business context but I think this applies to other things like schools. School's have a brand association whether they like it or not.
I was filling up the car's petrol t'other day and the shop lady knows I teach at Woodford House. She was chatting about schools in general. When I asked her where she went to school she said 'Colenso College', followed by it was good then but it's not now.
And right there the brand suffered. Who knows the truth. Anyone coming in contact with this lady is going to get one version only.
Schools go through ups and downs. Public perception is fickle. Schools want to protect their brand if it's a good one but Ahmed/Olander say that's a mistake. Innovation/ continual improvement is a must.
I'm lucky to be at Woodford House. We are currently involved in some potentially major change to the brand but we appear to be quite fearless about it right now. Fantastic!! Long may that continue.
Love and peace - Wozza
