1/4 of the year is gone – how am I doing with my resolutions?

We’re a quarter of the way into the year and therefore into my timeline to achieve my resolutions.

How am I doing?

• Blog once a week (at least) – Blown this one out of the water with a blog a day in March. I’m actually going to slow down for fear of getting repetitive and allow me to do some of the other resolutions
  
• Tweet once a day (at least) – been doing well on this one and have also been trying to be a bit more active than just tweeting and retweeting by conversing with @cheelau, @logbennett, @gilroyhq, @abrightnewway and @luhrsadvertising.  This is something I aim to continue doing so if you follow me and fancy a chat, I’m game
  
• Become more patient with the kids (if they let me) – I’ve been doing well despite one or two hiccups
  
• Make a concerted effort to reduce on the swearing – By my standards, March was a very tame month so I would consider it a success
  
• Film more family memories – yes, been doing well here… April should also be a good month with lots of birthday and activities

• Get eldest riding a bike without stabilisers – weather still not good enough
• Go camping at least twice – I’m a fair weather camper, say no more.  I will book something though as my membership runs out in June.  Planning something in May or June so I may need to revise this one to ‘at least once’
  
• Organise a reunion with friends from Portugal who I have not seen for 20 years - Portugal holiday timing will be around June so April will be the time to plan
• Become mayor of somewhere on Fourquare/Gowalla (my own home or workplace not included) – I’ve given up on Gowalla but this week I have managed to get 5 mayorships (one is work but the others are supermarkets and coffee shops)
  
• Get to Wii Fit age of 37 – not been on the Wii too much this month but have started exercising so would like to think it would have a positive effect
  
• De-clutter the house – House was de-cluttered in February but quickly cluttered again.  Wife has promised to help to sort this out (she’s a hoarder) during the bank holidays we have in April
  
• Sell something at a car boot sale – as above
• Move house – heavily reliant on ‘De-cluttering the house’ but still on the cards
• Get on a Segway (easy one as a ride on one was a Xmas present, but still valid I think) – Done in February
• (NEW) Take kids swimming on a regular basis – we started this two weeks ago with no success, but persevered and last week was better
• (NEW) Read a book a month – considering the only time this can happen is in the evenings I hope I’m not over-reaching.  Will try a mix of professional and non-professional books as I find to much of one or the other a bit boring after a while.  BTW, this is not 12 books in 8 months, it is 8 books in 8 months!
• (NEW) – limit myself to a maximum of two coffees per day.  My expresso consumption has got to the point of 4 doubles a day – not good for the heart and gives me insomnia

Fingers crossed for a good April!

There’s no gold where you’re looking

Online and statistics… should be pretty accurate, right?  You do something and you see the effect. As our meerkat friends say – ‘Simples!’

But then why do so many companies insist on measuring the wrong thing?

Companies prophesise about the number of Facebook fans, Facebook likes, Twitter followers, LinkedIn connections or website page views.  All providing brilliantly impressive numbers.  But what to they mean in business terms? F-all.

Companies are not in business to make friends or be liked.  They want to make money (even non-profit companies want  your money).  If people like them along the way then great.

Taking the above as true, it is clear that just relying on those numbers to prove success in social media is an obstruction of the truth. Twitter knows this as does Facebook. So why don’t companies?

I believe there is a basic reason for this – laziness. And this manifests itself in three ways:

• they need to sell Social Media up the food chain so big numbers impress (fans, likes, visits, followers)
• actual ROI from Social Media takes too long so the above provides quick stats to show it is working
• developing a proper Social Media engagement strategy takes too long and requires too much commitment

Companies need to move away from those measures into ones where there is a greater understanding of business impact, such as:

• how many contact forms are filled in by prospects?  how many times are our phones ringing from our web-only phone number?
• how many of our Facebook ‘friends’ used a promotion?
• how many of your Twitter followers will attend an event you are running?

Companies need to measure engagement and action rather than potential.  They need to consider how to convert those who have shown a disposition to have a message ‘thrown’ at them from passive viewers to active buyers.

Then will they really know if Social Media and Interactive is providing any gold.  Until then it will simply be nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Pills, thrills and tantrums – an adult epidemic?

As a parent, I’m very aware of my kids’ behaviour so it was with some alarm that I read an article in the Guardian about the use of behaviour medication on kids as young as 4.

Whilst not trying to dismiss ADHD as a disease that affects some children, I think that it has partially become an easy excuse and ‘get-out’ clause for parents and doctors alike. Parents because they cannot cope with the children and doctors because it is an easy prescription and they are sometime coerced by the parents to do so.

I cannot believe parents would willingly ‘dope’ their kids with such a drug unless it was actually diagnosed as such, and yet some do. Parenting can be tough – I have 3 kids myself so I know all about lack of sleep, short temper etc.  But guess what?  It was my choice to have kids.  I didn’t go into it thinking my life would be the same, so why should I buckle at the first sign of trouble? Why should I castigate my kids for my failure to cope?

Also, doctors need to take care in their diagnosis and (where it occurs) be stronger about undue pressure from parents.  Should something go wrong, it will be they who are in trouble not the parents through mis-diagnosing.

But more alarming are the statistics.  These are all US based but that trend is moving over the pond pretty darn quickly.

ADHD in 2003

ADHD in 2008

The key thing to take away from the above pictures is not the geography but the percentages.  In the space of 5 years, most areas have tripled.  Other stats include:

• 5.5m of 4-17 year olds has been diagnosed with ADHD in 2009
• Number 1 mental health concern in young people
• 60% of those diagnosed are given medication for it
• The percentage of children with a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis increased by 22% between 2003 and 2007

Sir Ken Robinson has also spoken about this and its effect on education.

And Louis Theroux did a programme on American kids living with medications, which you can view here.  It’s pretty shocking stuff at times to see not just the kids’ dependancy on the drugs but also the parents’.

The main problem is that as with all medication and drugs, the body gets used to it and then immune to its effect so then you end up having to give more.  By doing this you are building tolerance to the strength of the drug, increasing dependency on the drug and heightening the impact of the withdrawal.

No kid should have to suffer this unnecessary.

Who’s is really in control of your brand?

Last week I read this interesting post on AdAge.  It postulates that the essence of the ‘Consumers are in control’ of your brand is a fallacy and that Brand Managers are still the de facto rulers over the brand.

In it, Mike Wolfsohn, states

“The consumer is in control” has been among the most popular refrains uttered by those in the business of counseling brands on how to connect with their audience. Unfortunately, this widely embraced platitude is a predicated on a fallacy: Consumers may have a louder voice than ever, but they’re hardly in control.”

“That advertising is now subject to immediate, mass feedback does not mean marketers have given up control; it simply means they’ve lost the freedom to be thoughtless.”

“It’s critical to distinguish a consumer’s increased ability to amplify a brand’s successes and failures from his or her actual control over the story a brand tells. In the purest sense, consumers have always wielded immense influence with their wallet.”

“If brands were in “control” back when their only option was to launch expensive print, TV and out-of-home campaigns — and then wait several months to see the sales data — then, by comparison, modern media has made them practically omnipotent.”

I agree with Mike, in the sense that consumers should never dictate the direction a brand takes.  They are very much in power when it comes to voicing their opinions and/or spreading the message.  Brands can control what they say, but they no longer have the control to (a) dictate how people perceive it, or (b) ‘hide’ and disregard any feedback – positive or otherwise.

I do think though that this increase in consumer feedback and its immediacy allows for marketers to respond quicker to the public sentiment’ and act quicker if a change in message is needed – politicians and DellHell being obvious examples.

Mike also points to the GAP/Scyfy experiences.  Personally I think GAP caved in…  I very much doubt a logo would have a huge impact on people’s purchasing habits – yes, there may have been a couple of rough months but shortly after normality would resume.  I never thought they needed a new logo (after all, I don’t think it is the logo that is making it head down the drain) but that’s something for another time.

But I digress, the Brand Manager’s role is to look at the comments/feedback (or ‘buzz’ as us agency folk call it) and determine which are:

• valid – versus just a vent/rant
• to be actioned as being opportunities (new areas that the brand can explore – e.g. new tie-up with other brands/markets) or consistent with the brand ‘story’

A Brand Manager gets paid to make those distinctions and take those actions/decisions.   Brand Managers are still very much in control of the brand story. They just need to be aware that the path it takes will not be confined to that which they chose and act to maximise the opportunities that are presented by their customers.

Brand Managers, as they say in the posters, “Stay Calm and Carry On”.