digital art science

You’re a cynical bunch you Australian media and general Australian people.

I’m talking about your response to the campaign that has driven this blog out of a two year hiatus. I’m talking about Invisible Childrens “Stop Kony” campaign which every bugger seems to be bleating about at the moment. So why not join the chorus? I want to tackle some stuff up front so you know where I stand on it;

- “He’s just one Warlord and there’s heaps of them just as bad” – yes, he is just one Warlord, and there are loads and loads of evil people. But you can’t tell me that 30,000 kids freed from his demonic control and influence is not a good result.

And of course it’s one warlord. This is a central, key and genius aspect of the campaign. Being just one, the worst one, makes the objective achievable. If the message was ‘overthrow capitalism’, ‘bring world peace’ or ‘end poverty and starvation’… these are abstract problems that have no face, no clear, simple and quick end. Everyone feels they are just too big to be tackled and beaten. An appeal to an individual on any of these levels will fail because we cannot have hope of achieving such grand outcomes. But one guy? Surely we can help the Ugandan army catch and bring to justice one guy…?

And the truly sad truth is that many of us are too apathetic to act on a problem that we can’t see a clear and simple end to.

- “The kids are poor and are probably better looked after than they would be away from him” – I can’t stomach this one. Seriously? If I was dirt poor I would still rather stay dirt poor and on the brink of death than sign on to kill my parents, kill my countrymen, mutilate, rape, destroy and violate. I would rather stay dirt poor and on the brink of death than sign on to possibly be forcibly addicted to heroin and amphetamines so that I was better able to be controlled and directed to carry out inhuman acts. Oh, and that’s assuming (wrongly) that I have some choice in the matter, which in reality, I don’t.

- “Military intervention is not the answer” - What else can you answer this kind of behaviour with? PLEASE tell me. Please tell me how else you are meant to face off with a madman with 30,000 crack addicted children wielding automatic weapons. Avoid collateral damage where possible, but this inhumanity is of a scale that is deserving, demanding actually, of a powerful response.

- “But what happens after he’s gone? There is no plan to fix things, etc” - erm. Firstly, when has that bothered us before? And secondly, once he’s gone, at least the world will be in a position to be able to assist the ex-child soldiers. Until he’s gone, those 30,000 kids are still child soldiers and sex slaves. At least we know how to deal with that sort of problem, a bit.

- “Invisible Children is a lobby group, they have an agenda!” - Yes, and yes. But it’s a good agenda, or appears to be. And maybe it’s a bit Machiavellian, but if there is an ulterior motive, it can’t be any worse than leaving 30,000 children in the situation they are currently in.

- “One does not simply overthrow a Ugandan Warlord with a status update” - no. One does not. But if you think this is the guts of the campaign, you’ve barely scratched the surface and you need to open your eyes a little but. More on this follows.

With that out of the way I can get to the guts of this post.

I’m in love with this campaign.

I love it. I want to smooch it, and hold it and hug it and squeeze it. It is quite simply the most exquisitely perfect campaign I have ever seen. And that’s not just because it’s for a good cause. It’s because it leverages and manipulates (in a good way) to a perfect ends all that we envisage and hold dear as marketers and advertisers (and it’s about time that these dark arts were seriously put towards some good use, but that’s another topic).

First up, let’s talk about the sales funnel (STOP SNORING). This basic idea is at the heart of all marketing and advertising. And it goes like this, numbers are examples only to makes the maths easier.

Goal; sell something to your audience.

Target audience; This is the people you want to sell stuff too. Say 5,000 people in this example.

- You make an ad, banner, email, social campaign target it at/to them. You reach 1,000.

- Of those 1,000 perhaps 100 click the link and visit the website. This is your response rate.

- Of those 100 people, let’s say 5 carry out some form of pre-buying action. Fill out a form, leave their details, like the status update, etc.

- And of those 5, one (1) goes on to buy your product or service directly as a result of, and in a straight line from the ad.

Got it? Also, the leads are considered warmer as you get lower down. There’s variations on this, and more complex campaigns and ways of looking at it, but basically that’s it. The key is to maximise the engagement and influence of you or your brand on the leads at every step of the process. The idea of that is that at some point you will move them further down the funnel.

Right. Next up we have online advocacy.

From a marketing perspective, an online advocate is someone who spruiks your brand or product for you. That’s nice, but I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about social causes and activating people online, mainly through social networks.

I do not love this concept. In fact I have, until this week, hated it. I have joked about its ineffectiveness and ridiculousness. Because it used to be true, and kind of still is, you really can’t overthrow a Ugandan Warlord by liking a Facebook status. Not on it’s own. And not even with 500,000 other status updates.

BUT, within the structure of a well defined and executed campaign, attached to a broader mechanism of connected personalities, organisations, politicians and lobbyists, you totally can.

So let’s first look at the “sales funnel” for this campaign, and how it makes the most of, well, everything.

Goal; Make this Kony guy (in)famous enough that support for the US troops currently advising the Ugandan military does not dry up and finish.

The ultimate goal is awareness, and any kind of declaration of support for the campaign to catch this guy.

Target audience; Predominantly young people, but ultimately, everyone, everywhere.

Before we even enter the ‘funnel’… have you heard about Kony? Yeah? Invisible Children have just reached one of their goals. Awareness. Yours. On that note, have you discussed it with anyone at all? Yeah? That too? Right, you’ve helped disseminate their message. Welcome to the campaign. You’re now helping them meet their awareness objective. Yaysies!

OK, once more unto the funnel, dear friends.

- They have an ad. It’s 29 minutes long and currently has over 42 million views on YouTube alone (the official video alone, it’s been reposted and is also on other video sharing platforms). Have you watched it? You’re now a stat that Invisible Children can add to their dossier to be presented to policy makers in Washington. Hell, it was even played in full on Channel 10 here last night, so there’s another 45 viewers right there.

- Have you been to their website and had a click around? Yeah, me too. Congratulations, you’re another stat in that dossier. One more person aware and active.

- So let’s say you saw the ad, cried at your desk, wanted to do something. You signed up for their Action Kit. You’re a sale! Not only are you another stat in the dossier, but you’ve given them cash to fund their activities and push their agenda.

- And finally, you take part in the night of action. Or if you’re in the US, you write and call your local member of state to express support for the military advisers currently in Uganda.

And that’s their ‘sales’ made and objectives met. And they maximised and benefited from your engagement at every step of the process.

Invisible Children have derived value from your every interaction with this campaign at every level.

But wait, there’s more. They have leveraged the social and connected nature of people and technology these days to use you and your networks to increase the reach of their message and pour more people into the top of this funnel, and hence, more activism and sales come out the other end. BAM! During your journey through the funnel, did any of the below happen?

-Did you care about it enough, in any way shape or form, positive or negative, to comment, share or email this around? Mmhmmm? Welcome back to the campaign and congrats on raising more awareness. You’re also another stat in the dossier.

- Now, you may actually follow through with their night of action and take part in the penultimate activation event. You’re well and truly part of the campaign now, reaching even the non-connected, anti-social punters who still only look to walls for their news and current affairs.

And with the advent of this campaign I eat my metaphorical hat…

… in relation to attempts at effecting political and social change through Facebook ‘likes’. Invisible Children gone and went and done something that could work.

Your standard run of the mill Facebook “Stop Puppy Farms” campaign is flat. A single person sets up the group and thinks that if they get 100,000 ‘likes’ that the government will act. They won’t.

Stop Kony is different. The structure within which their audience are being encouraged to act is not flat. If you like the statuses, or even become aware and interact with the campaign at all, you form the base. You are the grassroots. You are the slacktivist.

If you take it a step further, share with your friends, buy the action kit, use the action kit, hassle a politician, etc. you’re the next level up, you’re an activist!

And above that is the lobby group itself. A formidably powerful group (they’ve already influenced foreign policy enough to get the military there in the first place). A lobby group which has just been armed with; 42 million YouTube views of their ad (and associated shares, likes, comments), 2.26 million Facebook ‘likes’, website visits in the millions of hits per day and money. Sweet, sweet money to keep their machine rolling and their quest to rope in celebrities and politicians to further the cause and increase their influence.

And the ultimate objective is truly simple and very achievable. Keep the audience engaged and inspired enough, for long enough to keep the US advisers to the Ugandan military in Uganda long enough to bring Kony to justice.

And once they catch the Number 1 International War Criminal… well, there’s always number two.

On a personal note, I’m married and a father now. I wasn’t the last time I updated this blog. A lot has happened between posts. The Social Web, and the new connected universe we now live out our lives in is actually an immensely powerful tool. Stop Kony is by no means the only way it can be used to good ends. Heck, in the last week alone I’ve personally connected people who can help each other in some way to make either, or both lives better. Amplify that, target it, direct it… and we can invert the pyramid of influence and right the wrong of money driving political power and get it back to people driving political power. Given I know more about these technologies and platforms than most, should I live in a world, and ask my daughter to live in a world, where I have the power to do good, to make things better, to improve the lives of those so desperately in need… and not do something?

I thank, and love, this campaign for opening eyes, mine and others. For empowering slacktivists and activists. And for having it’s head and heart aligned and in a good place. We see far too much of the opposite these days.

So, a little over a year ago I sent my second “Good Apple” newsletter, cryptically mentioning a big upcoming project.

I promptly disappeared for 13 months and left my website, newsletter and blog to gather dust.

Truth is I can’t say too much about it, as the project is still ticking along without me. Also, I want to give my work its dues. It wound up being a pretty impressive piece of innovation, strategy and execution, so I’ll address it in more detail when I can in a case study or overview.

For now I want to let you know that the single most important lesson I learnt in the last 13 months is that I NEVER want to stop learning. If I ever imply to you that I know everything about a topic, kick me in the shins. Hard.

A constant desire for knowledge is what makes digital tick. New tools are nice, but slobbering lust and enthusiasm from the rest of us online is what makes or breaks a trend and changes communication, behaviour, even the world. May I always be a slobbering enthusiast… (please read that in the least unpalatable interpretation available).

I’m not ruining any surprises by saying that the past 13 months was a very experimental project in terms of what we did online and where, a true suck it and see approach. Alongside that I was tackling a client from an industry of which I had no experience; Pharmaceutical. Heck, I haven’t studied science for more than 15 years, but the last year has seen me printing scientific research and publications to devour on the train like so much fruit flavoured Mentos (or is that just me, again?)

The other thing I have learnt is that now more than ever before I have a desire to do something good with my skills and experience.

The GFC, hurricanes, tidal waves, gangland criminals, back-stabbing politicians… the world doesn’t need more people out being mercenary, selfish or pursuing aims other than the increasing of niceness… who’s with me? Drop me a line at morgwn@digitalartscience.com.au, hit me up on Twitter (@morgwn) or just generally stalk me, get in touch and together we can find new ways to be good, using this wonderful thing we call the internet.

It’s a rainy and cold Sunday afternoon. I’m at a crossroads. And whether you’re with me or not, I’m out to make a difference. Watch this space.

Two things hit me when I watch ABC’s ‘The Gruen Transfer‘.

First of all, it’s a reminder that people outside of the advertising industry don’t think about brands, advertising and marketing in the same way, or as consistently as we (and the guys on the show) do. That may not sound like much, but it’s pretty shocking for me to realise that for the last 12 years or so, I’ve been analysing and dissecting brand and marketing messages much more thoroughly than they are intended to be.  Probably explains how and why I have gravitated to this industry.

The second thing is just how old-guard and traditional they are. With the exception of Todd Sampson, the panelists are caricatures of advertising industry stereotypes.

But all this has been said before by people with more time and insight than me.

Last night was the episode where the ‘The Pitch’ segment challenged two agencies (JWT versus The Foundry) to sell Obesity to the general public. JWT stuck their tongues in their cheeks and called on fatties to up their consumption for the sake of the economy. While The Foundry decided to shock everyone into silence by drawing a parallel between massively, horrendously bigotted insults and a fat joke. Kind of off piste if you ask me.

My fingers are too cold in my breezy Elwood flat to rant coherently about it, so I’ll kick it bullet point style.

• Obesity is NOT comparable in any way shape or form to being black, gay or Jewish
• Discrimination against fat people is virtually non-existent. Was the trade in fat people for cheap/free labour abolished only last century? Were millions of fat people killed in death camps before and during WWII? Do fat people get beaten up and killed by marauding gangs of redneck teenagers? Bugger, I started to rant there.
• Being fat is a choice (with the exception of glandular problems). Being black is not a lifestyle choice, nor is being gay, or Jewish. A fat person can change their situation and actually improve pretty much every aspect of their life, they wouldn’t be giving anything up, or going against their beliefs.

In a word “grrrrrr”.  I could go on.  But that wasn’t even the most offensive and ridiculous thing about last nights programme.

Did anyone else balk at Bridget Taylors little campaign extension idea? Let’s put a fit bird and an ugly bird on the Speight boat to the UK and see if we can get the Kiwi’s mate to knob the ugly one in the ultimate test of mateship?

Now I’m not ugly, or a woman, but I can imagine that ugly women face more discrimination and have fewer avenues to change their situations, especially when they shouldn’t have to. As always, it’s society that needs education and enlightenment, and let’s face it, a little more maturity and humanity. Perhaps ‘The Pitch’ challenge should’ve been to sell ‘Ugly’, but that might’ve dragged the attitudes of the panel, and TV-land in general, a little close to the sweaty and unforgiving spotlight.

I’ve been waiting for this moment all my life (well, a few weeks),

I could feel it coming into my bank last night.

Kevin Rudd’s handful of sweaty stimulus dollars. Given so that I may go forth and invigorate the Australian economy.

Well, I got straight on the case and went out a-stimulating.

Thanks Kevin! from Morgwn Shaw on Vimeo.

I try not to blog about TV.  I have been known to run around predicting its demise, so admitting that I saw something on TV, not to mention that I am thinking about something I saw? It damages my street cred. I can’t help feeling that something has to be said about the VB/Legacy Australia, Raise a glass campaign. The Raise a glass campaign is dirty and wrong. Word.

Let me clarify. Legacy is good. And beer is good, in moderation. But putting the two together for this campaign irks me.

For those that have not been assailed with this commercial, there are a few of them, but the concept is the same. Veterans of various wars sit and tell stories about a mate they lost. The ads end with the viewer being urged to raise a glass to our fallen heroes. And then you’re driven to the website where VB try to sell you a slab with a specially printed thingo on it, with a view to raising a million bucks for Legacy.

I feel a little dirty for complaining about this, but I think it’s justified.
Do we not have a problem with binge drinking and alcohol abuse in this country?
Do we not have problems with underage drinkers? And ‘at-risk’ demographics turning to alcohol at the expense of their friends, jobs and families?
Do veterans not struggle with alcohol abuse as they come to terms with the aftermath of their involvement in a conflict?
Hasn’t anyone at VB/Legacy’s agency ever listened to Khe Sanh?

Alcohol is wrongly used as a means to dull pain. Whether it’s plain old civilian pain, or the result of mental scarring that armed combat can bring.

And along comes VB and tells us to ‘Raise a glass’ to fallen heroes. They’ve twisted a negative association into a positive action by shoe-horning in some veterans. And they’re hoping that the message is ‘cleaned-up’ by our grateful feelings towards both the fallen and the non-fallen heroes.

Can I tell you something? It didn’t work.

People drink to excess because of exactly the message you’re pushing on us. Loss, hurt, pain? Raise a glass! Raise another one! We’re giving you an excuse to keep going at it as well. And a warm, fuzzy feeling because a couple of bucks went to a charitable and decent organisation. Your carton even has a specially printed thingo on it.

Maybe the pretty printed thingo will jog your memory as to why you got annhialated on VB last night? Why your liver hates you, your mouth tastes like a pub floor and your brain feels like it was squeezed into a skull three sizes too small for it. And the warm fuzzy feeling might get you through the morning ’till the Berocca kicks in.

Hell, that would be a better campaign than Raise a frickin’ glass.