I got some great feedback on my last blog post, “Why Advertising is Irrelevant.” It has spurred some great discussions with people I admire and who’s opinion I respect. I have to admit I wanted to be provocative because of the tired old approach of blanketing the earth with ad copy to get my attention, or worse, reading about work that puts gold statues on agency shelves but doesn’t help the client.

That said, I think I need to decamp for a moment. Everything in the marketing mix has it’s time and place. A TV ad still is probably the best choice for quickly gaining general awareness for some consumer audiences. My point is that we’ve got to start thinking differently.

Our goals as marketers should be to come up with great creative work, but it needs to be more driven by consumer input than ever before….and I don’t mean the kind of input that chooses the ending of Hollywood movies. I am talking using a measurement-driven marketing model to make the appropriate choices at the appropriate times by using input gathered from your customers.

This is easy to write about in a blog, but much more difficult to implement. This is hard stuff for most companies. Even most consultants who are talking about measurement-driven marketing, only get a piece of the puzzle (the left brain or the right) but can’t put the entire picture together in their own consulting company, let alone with the clients. You know as well as I do that internal silos, management structures and lack of clear directives are keeping measurement practices from gaining ground in most companies.

We’ve been thinking a lot about this problem and have been developing some alliances around this involving management consultant, analytics tools and design and development practices that are helping companies gain customer insight through metrics to improve marketing effectiveness. To steal a phrase from Mike Ackmann, one of our favorite consultants, the goal is “Data, not Drama.”

To meet this goal, we’ve crafted a different approach:

1) Strategy Integration
Develop integrated strategies involving key stakeholders across all disciplines in the company. Involving Marketing, Operations, HR, Finance, Technology and Sales.

2) Profitability Practice
Develop processes and practices to integrate customer interaction data into actionable business intelligence across the organization. We translate what is happening out there in the marketplace to what it means for your business.

3) Practical Application
Start simple. Measure what you can today and begin to develop a measurement/profitability practice within your organization. This applies to technology we choose as well. We look for the simplest, most cost-effective tools and technology to get the job done. Learn more about getting started ……

With some friends of mine recently returning from Vegas, it got me thinking of bright, eye-catching, cool, elaborate and over-the-top means to get a message across.

In the world of interactive, sometimes the use of widgets, Flash, or other “bright, flashing things” can interfere with the more important messages or tactics that a site is attempting to execute on. It reminds me of the traditional marketing/advertising star burst. In that case, what was (or god help us still currently is) intended or used as support or enhancement to the message simply became a distraction. That same sort of issue is now translating itself to the interactive space.

To be clear, Flash, widgets and the like aren’t necessarily a bad thing (unlike their traditional counterpart, star bursts). In fact, a majority of the time they can be a very well-used and effective tool. However, as more people and companies learn the ropes of the interactive space I just hope that we’ll avoid the use of Flash, for the sake of using Flash, but rather use it in a useful and supporting manner to progress the larger objectives and goals of the brand or company.

The problem is, too much Flash may help a site look cool and be eye-catching, but when it comes time to actually USE the site or get information what is that technology platform doing to the user’s interaction? How is the Flash interrupting a smart, clean and strategic navigation structure or information architecture? How is too much Flash causing longer load times and a slower site? How is a site made of entirely Flash hurting our online visibility in search engines? How are you hurting yourself with a primarily Flash site, when a part of your audience doesn’t have the latest versions of Flash or even have it all?

Without the intent of bashing anyone or any particular site, I’ve included some examples where they might consider those types of questions to provide a more usable product for their customers:

-www.rmgconnect.com
-www.innerstrengthstudio.com
-www.tampax.com (this isn’t flash, but I just can’t believe they have sideways navigation…did I miss something?)
-Just about any car company website

Azul 7 has been hired by the St. Paul Area Chamber of Commerce to redesign its website to reflect an updated brand positioning and enhance functionality. The new site will provide value-added services designed to attract new members and increase the Chamber’s ability to be a trusted, timely resource for all members. According to Liz Bogut, director of communications for the St. Paul Chamber, Azul 7 was selected from a field of candidates based on the firm’s demonstrated ability to integrate and apply business goals, design and Web 2.0 technology. The new site is scheduled to launch by January 2009.

In a meeting this morning, someone shared a phrase his father used to tell him: “Give a lazy person a hard job and they will figure out an easy way to get it done. “It’s a great, and incredibly true, statement. We have to admit we’re all a bit lazy - or impatient or demanding or whatever term you prefer. However, our “laziness” has allowed for great leaps and bounds in new innovations and processes that enhance efficiency and productivity, making our lives easier - which is what we all really want. I know “lazy” may have its negative connotations, but in the web environment it is usually the smart way to go. Feeding into this “laziness” is part of a good web strategy - organizing website content so that users can get the information they need without having to think and businesses are able to run at maximum efficiency. Simple is good. Often hard to achieve, but good nonetheless. As a web strategist, I for one, have found a career amidst this “laziness” - finding ways to make lives and job easier. I love finding resources (online and off) that make my life more efficient. So, below are a few efficiencies that have allowed me to embrace my laziness, and I would love to hear about the tools you use as well. E-newsletters and RSS Feeds - A great way to get automatic reminders of bills, low bank statements, coupons, sales, concerts, breaking news, the stock market or anything else you may want to be reminded that you care about. Metro Transit GoTo Card - No more scrambling to find exact change for the bus or waiting in line for a ticket while watching the train go by. Just swipe and go with the prepaid card. Meebo.com - Consolidates all your instant messaging accounts in one place. Kayak.com - Gathers flight information from all the major carriers and travel search engines. It also provides trends in flight costs and other great tools. Web Bookmarks - In one click of a button I have access to all the website I visit on a regular basis. No need to type in the URL every time. Auto-bill pay and online banking - I haven’t had one late payment and receive my statement notices online, reducing the amount mail to sift through and overall paper waste.

The twentieth-century saw a great shift in the style and purpose of art and design.

The Art Nouveau movement at the turn of the century had elaborate, lush, organic ornamentation that provided a decorative visual language with an emotional quality. Art Nouveau laid the groundwork for abstraction by breaking organic forms down to basic shapes rather than creating realistic representations.

In A History of Graphic Design Philip Meggs states, “Art Nouveau became the initial phase of the modern movement, preparing the way for the twentieth century by sweeping this backward looking spirit from design.”

The sparse geometric style of the modern movement was a stark contrast to Art Nouveau, and modern design went beyond mere decorative element; it served a purpose.

In A History of Graphic Design, Meggs discusses Walter Gropius’ beliefs on purposeful design. Gropius was one of the founders of the Bauhaus, one of the primary influences on modern architecture and design.

“Recognizing the common roots of both fine and applied visual arts, Gropius sought a new unity of art and technology as he enlisted a generation of artists in a struggle to solve problems of visual design created by industrialism. It was hoped that artistically trained designers could ‘breathe a soul into the dead product of the machine’ for Gropius believed that only the most brilliant ideas were good enough to justify multiplication by industry.”

Now at the turn of the twenty first century, we asked ourselves, what is the designer’s role in the age of mass production? We create so much, and the work that we create needs to have a purpose. We aim to unite art and technology by creating interactive spaces that are both functional and memorable. Creating rooms with walls that talk. Exploiting technology to create structures that the visitor can engage with. Spaces where the creative is fully integrated into the structural planning, not just a facade.

I think everyone should have a dog at the office. I was walking my dog, Redd, from the parking garage to my building this morning, and even total strangers would stop to pat him, smile, or coo things to him in that baby-talk voice people use with animals (which he totally loves, by the way). Heck, even when I was driving into downtown he had his head out the window getting other drivers to smile. People that normally move into their day without much to grin about were unexpectedly made happier. But it didn’t stop there! Once we got upstairs he instantly charmed a roomful of people in our glass-walled conference room as he stared in with a big dog-smile on his face, while simultaneously bringing the level of energy in the office up about 5 levels while hopping from person to person getting attention. All day he’s been infusing the air with his relaxed, easygoing personality (and a little dog breath). For others interested in dogs as therapy and dogs in general, here are a few good links: Minnesota Therapy Animals A good site about what you can do with your animal and volunteering. Urbanimal My favorite pet-stuff store; it’s local! They even deliver pet food. Airport Dogpark A blog for one of Redd’s favorite hangouts… it even has a Flickr account attached. p.s. Redd is now passed out in the middle of our workspace; as any good dog would be.