Fighting fire with breakdancing: Surface vs. iPad

I think he just voided the warranty.

If you’re following the Internet’s chatter around Microsoft’s Surface RT and Surface Pro, you’ve heard that Surface is Microsoft’s somewhat late response to the explosion of touch-centric mobile computing, and more specifically Apple’s iPad. You’ve heard that the Windows brand is struggling to remain relevant. In spite of mixed reviews I’m rather fascinated by the Surface, but today I’m talking marketing rather than tech. Let’s review some advertisements.

It starts well enough with Surface’s unique magnetic keyboard attachment. And I do like that click sound.

But why are we on a college campus? Actually, are we on a college campus? There’s a few people here that would qualify as fully grown adults. And then there’s also pre-teen girls dancing in matching Catholic school uniforms. Is Surface RT for the Justin Bieber crowd? Is this just a place where tablet users congregate?

The ad almost instantly morphs into a scene from Glee. People are throwing tablets around like they’re worthless (I’m guessing that message is off-brand). Breakdancing is happening. I think I saw a brief reenactment of The Matrix. Sure, this is all well directed and performed, but it’s also only interested in the product at a secondary level. This isn’t the fragrance industry where everything has to be sold on vacuous emotion and endorsement deals. This feels dorky.

Unlike Surface RT, Surface Pro can be used like a regular PC. You know, for serious shit. And Microsoft has an interesting way of showing it.

Okay guys, now we’re totally in business mode. You can tell because we appear to be in a metropolitan ad agency filled with hip young folks. But you know what’s still happening? Breakdancing. And it’s almost the same ad. Which is to say that it feels like a music video with tablets tacked on.

In Hey Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Advertising, Luke Sullivan tells us that ads are at their best when you remove all of the clutter. And while Apple doesn't do everything right, these ads demonstrate that theory well.

The product (and its key feature) owns the entire ad. There’s no Macy’s Parade getting in the way of the product.

The message is so clear: the iPad mini is the iPad, just smaller. That’s it.

Microsoft needs to stop breakdancing and just let their products speak for themselves.

Everyone needs a guide sometimes.

Photo credit: "Many Paths" by Kyle Pearce. CC BY-SA 2.0.

When an organization is overly dependent on their marketing agency’s knowledge and biases, financial and competitive vulnerabilities are exposed that ought to be accounted for.

Many organizations lack dedicated marketing staff and struggle to complete their marketing “tasks” (check out Unmarketing’s Scott Stratten who argues that marketing is not a task). Even in the case that someone has marketing skills and insight they may find it impossible to dedicate sufficient time to marketing, and will often require specific widgets like print design or web sites that require specialized skill sets to produce.

Of course the solution to these problems is outsourcing, and in marketing that often involves an agency relationship. Much of the time this is as it should be; it makes no more sense to fake one’s way through graphic design than automotive mechanics. But there’s a real risk here that an organization will be mislead or worse, even when everyone’s working with the best intentions. Organizations should mitigate these risks through a loyal, knowledgeable and sober second opinion.

Everyone is ignorant of most things. The complexities of financial markets make my brain ache. I sometimes wonder if the colors I’m wearing match. I’m a shitty cook. But I do know a bit about marketing and about web sites, and it’s come to my attention that many highly intelligent and talented people don’t know the difference between good and bad design. They may not understand what their web site should accomplish or how. And frankly, they may not really know if their agency is good.

That’s most unfortunate because marketing agencies are in a position of significant influence over their clients, perhaps more than some realize.

Do you have a trusted and knowledgeable second opinion protecting your organization’s interests in its marketing efforts?

Content matters more, but your platform matters too

I love trying new software, perhaps especially the stuff that powers my website. Over the years I have tinkered with  Blogger, TypePad, Posterous, WordPress.com, self-hosted WordPress, and now Tumblr. As usual I tried Tumblr completely on a whim and invested numerous hours in getting it going, only to unceremoniously cut it loose.

Signed in to tumblr.

The technology is the fun part. Installing or registering for a fun new toy and then playing with it is easy. It's putting the technology to use that's hard. Writing is hard. Creativity is hard. Discipline is hard.

But Tumblr just doesn't feel right. Here's my review.

What is tumblr?

Tumblr is a free online blogging service out of New York. You sign up for an account and they provide the software and the hosting. Tumblr seems to have a greater emphasis on bite-sized sharing of media over traditional written content, and integrates a social network around its users that I could do without.

It's pretty easy.

Editing a post on tumblr.

You don't really worry about anything. There's no software to fiddle with, no security updates. The biggest decision you have to make is which theme to go with (free and paid themes are available directly from tumblr.com), and the ones I tried offered quite a bit of plug-and-play functionality, including Google Analytics and Disqus.

But take it or leave it.

Of course the flip side of this is a lack of control. Tumblr does permit customization of your site's design via HTML and CSS, but as I am not a designer or developer that's of limited use to me. Outside of customizations made to a theme or embedding third-party resources into the site you are limited to the functionality offered by tumblr.

Perhaps more concerning for some is a lack of ownership over your platform. As the site's software and database are outside of your reach, you could never truly make a backup of your website.

Publishing issues.

I encountered some awkwardness in publishing simple texts posts with an image, which is troubling. I tried two  $49 responsive themes by StyleHatch.co. One didn't work right with my Nexus 7; less forgiveable was the second theme which didn't play nice with my iPhone 4 (StyleHatch told me they'd be looking into a fix). It's hard to get too upset about it when I'm paying (relative to agency prices) nothing for it.

I had trouble getting my tumblr themes to work right.

Choose your website platform wisely.

Don't be like me #1: Choose a platform like you'd choose a car. Figure out what features you need/want (get help with that if you need it). Shortlist products that meet your criteria. Look for a smart deal.

Don't be like me #2: Starting with a good platform is important, but it really doesn't matter which platform you choose if you don't make use of it.

Hey Microsoft, I don't want ads on my personal devices.

(Image from http://hothardware.com/News/Microsofts-Big-Hidden-Windows-8-Feature-BuiltIn-Advertising/.)

Slashdot reports via HotHardware.com that certain Windows 8 apps include advertising. You may find the user comments on Slashdot entertaining.

I am speaking to you as someone who, in part, makes a living via ads. So it’s hard for me to hate ads entirely (also, I find this iPad mini ad rather delightful). But I’m also a consumer like anyone else. Paying for ads sucks.

Let’s talk about where digital advertising is okay.

On ad-revenue supported content. Like CNN.com. No problem. It’s contained within my browser and I can make it go away by simply clicking somewhere else (well, sort of). I’m making a deal with the website that I can have the content for free in exchange for receiving ads.

On ad-revenue supported services. Like Facebook or Gmail. You don’t expect stuff that costs millions of dollars to make to truly be free, do you?

Where is not okay?

Built-in to stuff I pay for. Like my personal computer, key word being personal. I don’t want advertising on my computer any more than I want advertising in my kitchen or backyard.

Like another Microsoft product that I happen to own, the Xbox 360. Money was exchanged for the Xbox 360 console, the games that I play on it, as well as annual access to Xbox Live. And rather than providing a quality user experience Microsoft rewards me as a customer by peppering the user interface with ads.

I tend to like Microsoft products, but their monetization of paying customers makes me really wonder if I want to continue giving them my business.

Don't Do DIY Websites

Photo credit: “paris car” by Ben Silverman. CC BY-SA 2.0

As much as I can appreciate the need for small businesses to save money, DIY is not the right solution for nearly everyone. Here’s three reasons why:

1. Even with simpler solutions like Squarespace there’s a moderate amount of technical savvy needed.
2. Design experience matters. You will struggle to produce results that are visually pleasing.
3. Time matters. Even if you’ve got an eye for design and some tech skills, you may find you don’t have the time to complete your website reasonably expediently.

I’ve been working in the agency world for a little while now, and I’ve seen a number of small business websites. Many of them are ugly. Presumably, much of the time the owner of the site doesn’t realize that. Get professional assistance for your website design and development.

How is SMS marketing beneficial to our business?

Quora answer by Sam Turri:

I think we need more information to answer the question well.

SMS is a tool, like Quora or Twitter or WordPress. First we need to know who your target market is and what you’re hoping to achieve.

I have found the POST Method of figuring out social marketing strategies and tactics helpful. It’s covered in the popular book Groundswell. Here’s a link about POST: http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2007/12/the-post-method.html.

With that said I’m doubtful about the future of SMS marketing. With every year that goes by more and more people will have smartphones in their pocket (I’m speaking from a Canadian context). SMS is such a limited (and perhaps inefficient) marketing and communications channel compared to the mobile web and native applications.

View Answer on Quora

What are the differences between concrete5 and wordpress?

Quora answer by Sam Turri:

Concrete5 sports a clean and logical user interface. As a regular user of it I find it makes a lot of sense. (I am not a developer.)

The Concrete5 concept of editable blocks is powerful and easy to understand from a user’s perspective. Blocks are pre-made, user-customizable pieces of code that range from YouTube embeds, to forms, to flexible messaging areas.

What Concrete5 doesn’t have is a strong ecosystem, as another responder mentioned. This is probably the biggest strength of WordPress. It’s kind of messy and not as well designed as Concrete5, but there are zillions of themes and plugins available that will allow non-developers to accomplish more on their own for free or almost free. Even for a professional developer I would say there’s a greater chance of having to implement a Concrete5 site feature from scratch.

WordPress also has apps available for publishing with mobile devices, while Concrete5 is definitely not something you’ll be working with on your iPhone. This is a weakness the Concrete5 team needs to address in my opinion.

View Answer on Quora