mindblob

Brand idol

   
“Hello, my name is Joseph... before singing my song, I’d like to play a little beat-box for you”...

   

“Nouvelle Star” is a French reality television show based on the British television series Pop Idol. You might have heard about this show under other names, as it has become an international franchise : American Idol (USA), Australian Idol (Australia), Canadian Idol (Canada), etc.

Now, besides the mainstream casting (straight in the briefing), many of you have probably already seen some of the hilarious (wider) casting collected around the planet. Although it may be pathetic to see “not so good performers" jump on stage unprepared (to the real “reality”) and yet so serious about it, I must admit it is almost impossible not to laugh while discovering some "particular talents”.

 

WHAT IS THE KEY OF SUCCESS?

   

Talking about new singers, it’s probably a 360° panel of various objective and subjective elements including : singing performance, look, acting, charisma, dance, style, eye contact, etc.

This year, Joseph a 21 year old candidate from the long list, created a great surprise with an unexpected approach to the casting. Before singing, he jumped outside of the regular path and gently proposed a "DIFFERENT" and very special "PRODUCT" to the jury. As it was not expected, the jury accepted to listen and, boy... they didn’t regret it!

   

Now just take a closer look at this young man... as I think there is indeed a message to read between the lines. Look at his eyes and imagine what he felt while performing his beat-box. He knows he is probably not the guy who will convince while dancing, that maybe singing would bring him to the same level as all the contenders, that people are obviously more attracted by a super-cute blonde bimbo girl, soprano, vibrat-O-matic, blah, blah... ; )

Yet, he goes for it. His look is sharp, he is probably scared, he screens the jury, then he closes his eyes, dives into deep concentration and gives the best he can with passion and... yes, great talent. Jury is simply fascinated... they can’t believe what they see. A Capella, live, no trick, no microphone... wow! Result & translation: when Joseph wanted to go on... “Ok... now... here is my song”, they stopped him and said:

 

“We don’t care about the song, Joseph... you just qualified for the competition! Respect! Congratulations!”

   

In order to score... if you have TALENT (or a very good product), try to find the best POSITIONING (target and reach the right audience, be pertinent). DIFFERENTIATION  or making your product unique (incomparable), will open doors... IF your FOCUS helps you serve a great PERFORMANCE (deliver quality).

   

Even if he doesn’t reach the finals... it doesn’t matter, because Joseph did indeed find a brilliant way to get noticed. Congratulations Joseph! Just go for it!

   

The Production Trinity

   

Quick relay note after David Armano's very nice post : "The Producers". First of all, thinking about this is quite rare and full of empathy (thank you David). Producers are indeed the very last step of the chain between ideas and reality. Their role is very important and definitely deserves consideration. Commenting on David's post, made me think about the "production trinity".

So here is a little vision of a producer's brain. If you think carefully about these 3 elements, you'll understand why a producer is often pulling his/her hair out. Decent timing and appropriate budgets are the 2 electrons of quality. Ever heard about timing pressure and budget cuts? (haha!). As simple and obvious as it is, here is a little reminder.

 

TIME : is the first precious pearl.
Without time you have to rush things.
Rushing things costs money or quality.

MONEY :  is the second precious pearl.
Now money is not all, but it does help.
Without money, you need time to find solutions.

QUALITY : is the producer's ultimate goal.
...to make the original idea look/be sublime (be a hit).

 

It is fine to talk about ROI... but let's not forget this : in communications, quality (form) of the message counts as much as the message itself (content). Quality matters!
From this perspective, it is important to consider production. Don't always think about what it costs (...whether time or money), think about what it will bring back to you... IF it's a hit!

 

Driving determination

What do these 2 men have in common?

Determination as an engine, intuition as a GPS,
and risk taking as RPM meter.

They are both focused on their objectives and want to reach them, no matter how. Being on the side of justice, under the rules set by law... their amplitude of action is limited. They share in a way the paradox of the "limits of the rules", blocking them away from their goals.

Two alternatives :

- Follow the rules and miss the goal.
- Off-road, out-of-the-box, innovate or die, second right answer...

"You believe what you want. You work your side of the street... and I work mine"
- Frank Bullitt quote - Bullitt.

"You don't assign him to murder cases... You just... turn him loose"
- Extract of Dirty Harry trailer voice off & posters. 

What about you? Are you determined?
How far are you ready to go to reach your objectives?

2 point what ?

2 days after a "corporate meeting"... thoughts and images still bounce into my mind.

So, I thought about this illusion visual we all know, with 2 spheres surrounded by either small or big satellite spheres. Let's focus on vision and perception :

If you want to see it "SMALL" than you will.
If you want to see it "BIG" than you will.
Different perspectives. Same reality.

Think twice, think again. Then suddenly it becomes obvious : It's just a matter of time! Perception of a same "thing" (object or situation), if not immediately clear, may always change with time, when you come back on it. Just a matter of time... and quite often a matter of patience as well.   ; )

Focusing thoughts

If you ever think you had a bad day... Just think about Jack Bauer in 24 CTU. So many things can happen in 24 hours, right. Of course this is fiction, but what we live is always relative in a way.

We see situations and keep comparing them to other situations. "Yesterday was better, today was a succession of bad events... so : I had a bad day". Does this make your day a bad day? No, not necessarily. How we see things is probably more important than how they actually are. Sometimes positive thinking or creativity can transform a dark vision of a day or situation into a less desperate brighter vision. Knowing where you want / need to go is important as well. Targeting you out of the "bad day" also helps. As long as you can focus your thoughts out of it, you can escape having a bad day.

Like Steve McQueen in "The Great Escape", playing baseball while in prison. Is he thinking about the awful day he spent there? Nope! His thoughts are free already... and so is he.

By the way... I wish you all a delightful day!  : )

Blogging motivators

Back with a fine tuning of the "Intentions of a Blogger" visual.

This is more like a metaphoric image, now. I was thinking about the comments posted on the first visual, when I saw my old Space Projector in a corner of a room. As bloggers, our intentions are not rigid... They may be, but they can also be dynamic, like commented by Ann Handley (Chief Content Officer of MarketingProfs) :

"Just as a blogger can jump from one circle to another, the spheres themselves can also overlap to create new and subtle twists to the meaning. In my mind, for example, "Networking" and "Knowledge" are closely linked."

On the image made by a Space Projector, there are single bubbles but also mixed bubbles. And movements are possible. Fourth dimension (time) is a vector of the movements and changes in space. Just like it is in blog life.

Same proposition for the motivations of bloggers, they can launch a blog in the "Knowledge sphere", after a while jump into the "Popularity sphere" then peirce into the "Business sphere" at the same time. I'd say, as it works with stats, the resultant motivation should be like an average.

Too complicated you'll say. Right! Sometimes intuition helps a lot more to "feel" intentions of bloggers when you read their posts. That sort of instinct will lead you to believe in the content provided there... or not. This is also important when related to the Web 2.0 phenomenon. Ok well, this will be the subject of another post.

The nice thing about this second illustration is that it could maybe also cover David Armano's comment (and I think he is right!) :

"...However, I'm not sure blogging is in the middle. It's almost invisible throughout. More like the vehicle that gets us to that fulfillment of whatever it is that drives us. Maybe that it what is in the core. Satisfaction.  (Though are we ever really satisfied?)"

So, what if in this metaphor, "blogging" was the "Space Projector" ?
Blogging would be like an ideas beamer.

Intentions of a Blogger

Just went through this idea. It might be interesting to think about the intentions of the bloggers. A key to understanding people is to link their actions to their intentions.Trying to find the right intention often helps focus on the right interpretation of an action.

So why do bloggers blog? What are they looking for? What are they expecting from their blog? There is obviously more than one reason. After twisting these questions around, I identified 4 mainstream intentions spheres. But of course, a blogger is a dynamic person and  so can jump from one sphere to another.

- NETWORKING :
Making a blog to relay or share information. Family blog, friends networks, hobbyists, etc.

- KNOWLEDGE :
Making a blog in a quest of information, for a specific research, personal quest, asking questions, finding answers.

- POPULARITY :
Making a blog to become famous, to become an influencer in a specific field, to relay politics, etc.

- BUSINESS :
Making a blog to enhance or develop business, make professional contacts, take contact with target group, share business experience... sell things.

Introducing ... "mindblob"

Dear Darwin, here we are. We've been challenging our brains for ages of existance to figure out who we are, where we're from and where we are going to. We created an infinity of tools to facilitate the exchange of information from man to man. Time and distance became less and less problematic.

But now, we reached a point where, for the first time, brains can instantly connect to other brains, regroup, and grow... through time and space. So... great! What's the next step? What will internet and access to global knowledge and communication bring us? Anything new? Yep! It is a revolution, an evolution, a real new perspective.

Big brands and labels don't have the ultimate power of mass communication anymore. Simple customers, PC users, have the opportunity to talk back to the entire world with the strongest of all the communication tools ever : the internet. The inter-connections between people like you and me, making groups within a click of a mouse are changing the shape of our society. It is unstoppable, and is shaking (...positively imo) our world.

Creativity is now different and so is innovation. Brands have to rethink the way they talk to people and most of all the way they listen to their customers. Marketing has to adapt as well (marketing 2.0) to the new tools available on the WEB 2.0. Last but not least, advertisers, the super-hero-trend-setters of the old days, have to catch-up with this new reality.

What are the new perspective? The trends to expect? How are the marketing and communication professionnals going to react? Yes... this is another blog talking about the (same) subject. Let's feed the mindblob!