Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman's Blog About Surprise

What A Difference A Minute Makes...

Andy Sernovitz, King of the Word-of-Mouth marketers (with hyphens!), this one's for you.

I've always said that Surprise doesn't have to be majestic to be effective.  In this game, the effect is way more important than the cause.

For proof, consider the French Deli downstairs from where I'm staying in Vail.  Now, this town is filled with the finest of restaurants (Kelly Liken and Sweet Basil to name just two) and some of the coolest, quirkiest places to see and be seen.

But every time I mention I'm staying in Lionshead Arcade, people say: "Isn't that where the French Deli is?"

Now the French Deli is far from unique.  It serves sandwiches, cappuccino and other foodstuff staples.  So do dozens of other places here.

What makes it stand out is its rather obtuse opening hours (see above). The weirdness of 7:44 a.m. and 4:01 p.m., as silly as it may sound, means way more than anything they serve.  I've overheard people talking about it all over town--in liftlines, even at the local Starbucks.  (And these guys stick to their guns, too.  My son Hayes went down for a coffee at about 4:10 the other day.  Zut alors..fair-may!)

The difference of one minute, a mere sixty seconds, is enough fodder for the Surprise sirens to be sounded.   

Remember that the next time you're spending hours trying to think up ways to Surprise your customers.

...Or A Couple of Cookies

More culinary Surprise from Vail.

Enjoyed a tastebud ballet last night at Kelly Liken's unique eatery...but that's to be expected from a restaurant that's been heralded across the USA, and one whose seasonal American cuisine costs about $100 a head to enjoy.

Also appreciated, but kinda expected, was the tableside visit the resto's eponymous owner paid to every party in the place.

The unexpected, however, was a little bag of cookies--wrapped in a note quoting  A.A. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner--that was given to us as we left.   "Breakfast pastries to remember us by, " our waiter explained with a smile.  Nice touch.  Discreet, relative to the product, and something to talk about on the way home.

Too often, as good as it may be, a restaurant experience is forgotten by the time we get to our cars.  Kudos to Kelly and co. for extending it to the next day...and beyond.

(By the way Kelly, if  you're reading this, another interesting touch would be if your wait staff insisted we take home those sleek, branded pens you have us sign our credit card bills with.  They'll work as hard for you in our offices and homes as they do in your dining room.  Maybe even harder...)

Beaver Creek, uh...Rocks!

I've been to thousands of rock concerts and have seen it all. 

Or so I thought.

On Wednesday, I went to see the legendary Dave Mason at the Vilar Arts Center in Beaver Creek, Colorado (a resort town so magnifico-eleganza it makes tony Vail urban street cred by comparison).  The Vilar Center is a gorgeous edifice, with a concert hall unparalleled in intimacy and wood-paneled majesty.  Box office is at street level, and you head down a grand staircase to get to the floor seats. 

Once there, to the immediate left of the center doors, was the perfunctory "Merch Table" (that's it just below), resplendent with t-shirts, CDs, posters and like.  Max price: $25.  One color: black.

But on the other side of doors was another souvenir vendor, one that gave new meaning to the term "Rock" Concert (see below again).  There, behind two shining showcases, were rope-thick necklaces of emeralds, rubies, sapphires and diamonds, multi-strand tennis bracelets, higher-than-high-end watches, and gold earrings the size of walnuts. Many pieces were worth WAY more than the gross potential of the evening's entertainment (that's 530 seats at $55 per).

Way way way way way way WAY more.

Out-of-the-ordinary indeed, but easily rationalized I suppose, since Princess World Jewelers, the people behind the showcases, are also the people sponsoring the winter's season of entertainment at the Vilar.  Even easier rationalized given the household income of most of the concert's attendees would dwarf the GNPs of many small nations.

And, as the pictures kinda reveal, guess which Merch Table had more traffic?

Getting "stoned" at a concert never cost this much before...but I suspect the high lasts a whole lot longer.

Ka-ching!

How? Right Between The Eyes!

So I'm strolling through the streets of Vail, passing by very hoity-toity apparel boutiques, chi-chi restaurants and jewelry stores that would humble Fort Knox, when I see the above work of art under the glare of the halogen spotlights on the back wall of one of the town's most prestigious art galleries. 

"Hmmmph...talk about vanity projects," I sneer to myself. "Some zillionaire is paying off the gallery to show off crayon scribbles and construction-paper cut-outs from his grandchildren."

But as an aficionado (a classier word for "fan," I guess) of wild contemporary art, I am intrigued, and pop into Vail Village Arts to check it out.

You guessed it. 

Pow!  Big time.

The work is actually an acrylic painting by Seattle's Bill Braun (at 51 years of age, slightly older than a pre-schooler).  And despite the pronounced crinkled paper, shadows, plastic DymoLabels and protruding staples...the canvas is flat.   

Flat as a pancake after being run over by a steamroller.

Twice.

Braun's means of expression--called Trompe L'Oeil (literally "fooling the eye")--is an art world classic, practiced by painters of renown like William Harnett,  Rene Magritte and John Peto.  But their subjects tend to be of more classically traditional imagery, like still lifes, musical instruments, religious icons and architectural renderings.   Paper flowers and thumbtacks were out of their comfort zone, one supposes.

And that's what makes Bill Braun's stuff so special--the delight-heartedness he brings to the form.  The dichotomy of painstaking craft and innocent whimsy makes for a truly Surprising work of art; one you can't stop staring at...even long after you know the "secret" behind it.  It ain't just hype when his bio says: "These are not only paintings, they are entertainment."

And if you think the effect is remarkable in this blog's lil' snapshot, you should see it in all it's two-by-three-foot glory. So lifelike is the 3D effect that the gallery's owner, John Vickers, has installed a sign near Braun's display imploring visitors to "Take another look, but refrain from touching."

Now, if I could only refrain from touching my Amex Card...

(By the way art lovahs, if you get off on Bill's work, check out John Pugh and Dominique Gaucher, two other practitioners of playing with your head via their canvases.)

See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Wear Me

Seth Godin hit the nail on the head and hard with his post on The T-Shirt Rule.  I've been braying about this for years (even here in Pow!).  Along with stickers, this is today's tangible acid test of cool among Teenagers 2.0. 

And jeez, you should see my t-shirt collection!  Boxes full.  My current fave features the Robert Crumb drawing of Boy Howdy, mascot of Creem Magazine (my rock 'n' roll bible growing up in the '70s and '80s; currently reborn on the web).

And your fave?

(Crystal) Balls On The Line

Ahh, the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Despite this year's passings of James Brown and Preisident Gerald Ford, it's traditionally a very  S...L...O...W  news period, which is why the media, old and new alike, is inundated with appearances by the Lookie Twins--the looks back on the year past and forward to the year ahead. 

I can deal with the annual Look-Backs.  They're relatively innocuous: what happened, and why.  Near-time nostalgia.

It's the Look-Aheads that kinda tick me off a bit.  This is the time of year when the blowhard brigade trumpet their polished horns the loudest.  Suddenly, everyone's a John Naisbitt, and soothsaying with reckless abandon.  And with so many media outlets fighting for attention, the pundits' prognostication gets wilder and louder to shout down the other guys. 

And here's why they can get away with it--there's no accountability.  Look-Aheaders know that no matter what they say, no one's ever gonna call 'em on it.  In fact, the more noise they make, the more outlandish their forecasting, chances are that they'll be invited back to predict the future same time NEXT year.  The end doesn't justify the means; it's as if the end doesn't even exist.  Screw the answers, this is all about the questions.

As FOPs know well by now, the whole nature of Surprise is going against what is expected, or what one says is expected to happen.  The truly eye-popping things we look back on in late December are rarely, if ever, foreshadowed in early January.  Show me the psychic that predicted the meteoric rise of YouTube or Facebook or An Inconvenient Truth or (add 1,000 other examples here) and I'll show you a liar. In fact, one of my favorite adages of all time is the skeptical and somewhat nasty:

"He Who Predicts the Future Lies...
Even If He Tells The Truth."

Yeah, yeah, I know; I should chill out.  Suck back an eggnog or something.  Most of the Look-Aheads are meant primarily for entertainment purposes. But to me, what would be REALLY entertaining is if every so-called fortune teller's claim made this time of year would be duly recorded, safely stored and ceremoniously brought out 365 days later to be compared to the reality they foresaw.

Like Mutual Fund Managers, Sport Oddsmakers and other people who risk their credibility every time they open their mouths, Look-Aheaders should be evaluated, ranked and rated every December 31st.  Let 'em put their crystal balls on the line. Live by the word, die by the word.  Now that would separate today's true Nostradamuses (Nostradami?) from the Country Fair Fakirs!

Come to think of it, that would also make a truly interesting year-end reality television show; way more fun that those lame-o, Y-List "Celeb"-packed New Year's Eve "specials" the networks foist upon us. 

So, any brave oracle out there wanna go out on a limb and predict that this makes it to TV by next Dec. 31?

Uh...Happy New Year. 

Not So Silent Night

Insane.

That's the only way to describe the staggering spike in traffic yesterday.  A Sunday, Christmas Eve day no less, and Surprise Central was buzzing like Santa's sweatshop.  All this due to to a minor mention from the Maestro of all Marketing bloggers, Seth Godin.  Talk about a pleasant Surprise, willya?

So to Seth, I say "Thanks for the Christmas present."  (Almost as good as the signed, leather-bound, gilt-edged collection of your work that I was hoping for.)

And to those who have come here for the first time because of the glad tidings of Godin, a very special welcome...

...and the promise to enlighten, inform, entertain and, of course, Surprise.

Vacation Rules

If the Gods loosen their grip on Denver and allow the airport to open more than two runways, then I should be off on my way for a few days of snowboarding in Vail as you read this. That said, there are two rules about this blog while yours truly is on vacation.

1. Posts will be sporadic
2. Posts will be less-than-sexy due to primary posting by Blackberry

However, out-of-sight doesn't necessarily mean out-of-mind.  For my more recent FOPs (Friends-of-Pow!), I have put together two compilations; a "What It's All About" and a "My Five Faves" collection.  The former should give you a good idea of this blog's philosophy and raison d'etre (dontcha just love it when I switch lingos?), while the latter should give you some insight into the headspace of its author.

What It's All About
Welcome Back(wards)
Theory 2--Intimate Goes Big
Watercooler IP
New vs. Nu?
Theory 1--Everyone's a Kid in Disneyland

My Five Faves
Hot Wet...
The Highlight Reel of Life
You Will Read This Post
Down Under (Again, But Different)
...And Now, A Response

Enjoy both lists, feel free to explore more if you wanna, and if we don't catch up over the Holiday, let's make a date to regroup on January 5th, when I put the gloves back on and start whacking you where the nose meets the eyebrows.

Virals Go Viral

What timing! 

Yesterday morning, I mention that it's Surprise that makes viral videos viral.

Yesterday afternoon, I get this Holiday Card from Twist Image, that encapsulates the year in--you guessed it!--viral videos.

Follow it through, see how many you sent and/or received throughout 2006...

...then let my point sink in even deeper.

(By the way, the Twist Image card itself became somewhat of a viral phenomenon, finding its way around the web faster than a speeding Line Rider.)

No Surprise, No Net As We Know It

If the subject matter of this blog was insignificant...if I didn’t believe in its extreme relevance and importance...I would’ve tossed in the towel a couple dozen posts ago.

But every now and then, something comes along to inject a new dose of adrenalin into my veins and make me realize that perhaps this whole Surprise thing is bigger than even I suspect.

In other words, Vindication File, open wide and say “Ahhhhhhhh!”

A few days ago, Mark Goren turned me onto authors Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba (hey, I try to know ‘em all, but what are bloggers for?), for the possibility of bringing them to town for a book bash/conference. Spent much of the week leafing through their new book “Citizen Marketers: When People Are The Message,” and had my cranium crunched by their captivating theories and anecdotes.

The nuclear Pow! though, came when they explained how and why memes spread (and they had a captive, converted audience in me after the past two weeks of “Five Things” and “Z-Lists”).

The secret, it seems, is Surprise. The mechanics of most everything we share virally throughout the social media depends on it. They explain in a succint, five-point plan:

1. Bloggers spread a story that has a surprising development
2. The story is filled with numerous and concrete details
3. The story documents a tangible form of injustice
4. The story reaches a plateau of recognition among a number of well-known blogs
5. The story reaches a worldwide plateau

Obviously, Ben and Jackie explain this in greater detail and pepper their explanations with examples (come on folks, there’s only so much of their book I should give out for free). But as well-documented and well-formed as their plan is, you don’t get to #5 without passing through #1.

Put another way, you don’t go worldwide without Surprise.

Yes, the authors talk about “stories” (like the “Dirty Secret” iPod battery scandal video or the sleeping Comcast technician), but think for a second about just about every email or video you received from—or sent to—a friend.

They’re about blenders that turn marbles to dust.

Or mints that convert Diet Coke bottles into geysers.

Or unknown artists who perform four-minute histories of dance or choreographed routines on treadmills.

Or some sort of rumour about the insidious behavior of our favorite multinational.

Or seemingly impossible photos that reveal conspiratory secrets.

What they’re NOT about is the mundane, the usual, the expected. A photo of my dog Shaydee (see below), no matter how cute, will spread about as fast and as easily as frozen peanut butter. A video of my son Hayes playing goalie for his Midget “A” hockey team will perhaps delight his grandparents.  Unless, of course, he makes an impossible save lying down after a mid-air dive and somersault. Then it becomes a Pow!, and a candidate for sharing.

How important is Surprise? Well, it goes way beyond Citizen Marketing. In fact, without Surprise, I’d venture to say there’d be no YouTube. Without Surprise, MySpace would be the ramblings of that boring kid you do your damndest to avoid. And without Surprise, North Korean kook Kim Jong II would be Time Magazine’s Person of the Year instead of us.

Surprise is what makes viral, well…viral! Without it, the Internet as we know it would be spinning its wheels, stuck in neutral.

My dog Shaydee: Adorable yes, but not exactly viral (unless she licks you).

Sweet, Small and…Uh, What Line?

Here’s a small, sweet Surprise with a disproportionate Pow! effect.

Monday night, while waiting in a rather long line to pay for (yes, even more!) books at Chapters, I was approached by one of their employees, decked out in a Santa hat and a wide smile. 

Her mission? Not to sell me a “frequent buyer” card or to solicit charitable funds, but to offer me a chocolate from an overflowing basket of goodies.

“We’ve had long lines all day,” she said. “And this will help take your mind off waiting.”

No thanks, young lady. 

Bad for the waistline.

But great for the blog.

Heather Reisman, may your lines be long all year ‘round at Chapters. And may you continue to come up with more wonderful ways to Surprise those waiting in them.

(I don’t wanna brag but we used to do this at Just For Laughs for the insanely-long lines outside the box-office on the first day we put our shows on sale. We had performers tell jokes, hold dopey contests, give away t-shirts and other swag. The “line-tertainers” had as much fun as those whose wait was lessened by this attention-deflector. I don’t know why more people don’t do this at other places where we find ourselves delayed. I would pay a surtax to see it at the airport, or at border crossings…)

Theory 3--Picking Up, and Picking Out, The Pieces

Quite the delight last week was getting an email from Rob Gerlsbeck, Associate Editor of Marketing Magazine. Every January, the mag kicks off the new year with a “Pop Culture Forecast,” which projects trends in food, music, video games, fashion and gives some insights into consumer behavior.

And this year, someone must’ve done sumptin’ wrong, as I’ve been asked to join a prestigious panel of five (well, formerly-prestigious now) and give my take on the subject.

One answer that didn’t make the cut was to the question of what I foresee as THE Huge Trend for 2007. Normally, this edit would’ve been forgotten and relegated to the ether, but after reading an eye-opening Time Magazine article called “How To Bring U.S. Schools Out of the 20^th Century” this past weekend, and seeing how my opinion synched with that of authors Claudia Wallis and Sonja Steptoe (who said that "In an age of overflowing and proliferating media, kids need to rapidly process what's coming at them and distinguish between what's reliable and what isn't,") I figured it fits well within Pow! as yet another one of my “Theories.”

So, the answer my friend,to the Trend question:

"The big trend I wish and pray for in ‘07 is one that will facilitate and manage the big trends of the past few years.

"In other words, I’m waiting for the trusted sage, the guru, the 'editor,' so to speak, who will help make sense of the all assault-our-senses clutter, be it the Web, TV’s 2,000-channel PVR universe, the retail environment—any place that is overrun with today’s perverse overabundance of choices.

"I am one of the most 'up on things' people I know, yet still feel that I’m missing way more than I catch, and worse yet, that the stuff caught isn’t the best out there.

"Like a great D.J. or a personal stylist, I want to depend upon empowered, uber-in touch people--not software--who will be able to recommend not only what I want to know about, but what they feel that I need to know about."

Not only was it a nice Surprise, but a very astute choice by Time when they named “Us” as People of The Year (that’s three magazine titles in less than a sentence, but I digress…) for 2006. For better or worse, we have democratized the media and the flow of information. I know I’m adding to the pile with this blog, but jeez, there’s so much out there, never mind who do you believe, but where do you start, and when does it end?

Perhaps the next big idea we'll pursue here at Airborne is a way to make sense of the info explosion, and find a way to parse it into single serving, hyper-relevant, knowledge nuggets. Like the iPod made the song more important than the album (and even the artist), maybe the future lies not in recommending blogs, websites, stores or TV shows, but individual posts, pages, sale items or show scenes.

By the way, the Pop Culture Forecast appears in Marketing Mag on January 8^th.

See you there, see you then.

Worth A Buck...At Least!

A brilliant man, my friend Austin Hill.  Check out The Million-Dollar Blog Post, his Holiday Gift to the World.  A great salesperson selling a great idea makes for one easy sell.  Austin, I'm in, and here's proof!

Straight To The ZZ Top

Was it something I said?

Well, kinda…

I compose the previous post (right below this one here), and suddenly, traffic flows wildly into Pow! from all directions. The payoff of a premonition?

Again, well kinda.

In a lucky break of serendipitous timing, my lil' ol' blog was be featured as part of the Z-List, another meme that seems to be sweeping the blogosphere.

In a nutshell, the Z-List is an initiative of Mack Collier, he of The Viral Garden blog fame. In his words:

"In an effort to bring more link-love to those blogs that I feel aren't getting their due, I've created a small list of blogs below that I've linked to.

"The idea is to create a meme built around giving link-love to the blogs that deserve it, and hopefully turn Technorati's system of using a blog's # of links to determine its 'authority', on its ear."

Mack goes along to encourage bloggers to cut, paste and add other deserving lesser-knowns to the list, and then post it to increase traffic, recognition and, of course, good karma. The list, as you’ll see below, has significantly grown in length…and breadth.

So to Mack Collier and all others who chose to Surprise the gang at Surprise Central this weekend (including Nick Rice of the Cre8tive Group), consider your mission accomplished. And despite my previous status on Lists A-to-D (in the fields of showbiz parties, speaking, exec level and hockey skill respectively), consider it also truly appreciated.

Now go get 'em!

ZEE LIST

Shotgun Marketing Blog
Transmission Marketing
Twist Image
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Pow! Right Between The Eyes! Andy Nulman's Blog About Surprise
Billions With Zero Knowledge
Working at Home on the Internet
MapleLeaf 2.0
darrenbarefoot.com
Two Hat Marketing
The Emerging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Drew's Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
Kinetic Ideas
Unconventional Thinking
Buzzoodle
NewsPaperGrl
The Copywriting Maven
Hee-Haw Marketing
Scott Burkett's Pothole on the Infobahn
Multi-Cult Classics
Logic + Emotion
Branding & Marketing
Popcorn n Roses
On Influence & Automation
Bullshitobserver
Servant of Chaos
converstations
eSoup
Presentation Zen
Dmitry Linkov
aialone
John Wagner
Nick Rice
CKs Blog
Design Sojourn
Frozen Puck
The Sartorialist
Small Surfaces
Africa Unchained
Perspective
gDiapers
Marketing Nirvana
Bob Sutton
¡Hola! Oi! Hi!
Shut Up and Drink the Kool-Aid!
Women, Art, Life: Weaving It All Together
Community Guy
Social Media on the fly

Coming By Accident (Seeking Britney Spears)

One of things I like best about blogging is seeing where my blogees come from. Typepad’s stats page is one of simplicity and I use it often; each page view is tagged with a link.  After great reflection, my crack research team has concluded that most people who come here are either referred by other blogs (no Surprise here), or are friends, business associates or other acquaintances here to check up on what the guy from Airborne (or the guy formerly of Just For Laughs) is yammering about.

But then there are those who stumble upon “Pow!” via Google, Yahoo!, Technorati or other search vehicles. They are an element of my constant delight and Surprise, because what they’re looking for is rarely what they find, when they find me.

I thought of this while laying down Thursday’s post. I wonder how many fans of Dr. Dian Fossey or future zookeepers will join our merry band in their search for “Gorillas”? Or how many Vietnam buffs stopped by Surprise Central on their quest for “Guerillas”?

Other posts attracted equally diverse audiences and equally perverse searches. For example,you wouldn’t BELIEVE the traffic spike I’ve enjoyed ever since writing this one.

If I were a traditional marketer, I might bemoan this turn of events. I mean, just think of the inefficiency of my reach; about 33% of my traffic is here purely by accident.

But as the Sultan of Surprise, thinking about their reaction upon landing here, I couldn’t be happier.

To them, I share the sage words of J. D. Clampett: “Y’all come back now, hear?”

The Al Gore Forecast

Friday, December 14th.  8:40 a.m.

Montreal, Canada.

11 days until Christmas.  Not a flake of snow on the ground.

Today's weather:

Cloudy, showers.
High of 9 Celsius (about 60 Fahrenheit).

Surprise?  Of course.

Scary?   You betcha.

Enough is Enough is Enough is...

Been spending a lot of my diminishing reading time reading up on design.  Not only am I an aesthetic whore, but I feel that there's a lot to learn in dealing with people in a personal and/or business sense by understanding how to deal with them in a physical sense.

So here's what I've learned lately: as a backlash to the assault-our-senses, stuff-it-all-in clutter that seems to permeate much of today's consumer goods (particularly in my field of mobile communications), a "less is more" school of thought is starting to emerge in product design.

But that ain't the answer.  This quote, from design deity Milton Glaser,(visual maestro behind the I Love New York image amongst other cultural iconography) is:

"Less isn't more;
just enough is more."

I, uh, couldn't agree more.  Particularly in creating Surprise.  For what is Surprise if not the design of an experience?  Overdo it and you turn people off; under-do it and you leave 'em nonplussed and yawning. 

"Just enough" isn't a compromise when it comes to designing Surprise or products.  It's the optimum sweet spot that delivers the unexpected but leaves 'em wanting--aw, here we go again!--more.

Gorilla, You’re A Desperado

The above line is from a Warren Zevon tune, and very apropos to today’s rather lengthy post.

When it comes to establishing true Surprise in marketing, nobody does it better than the rogues known as Guerilla Marketers. These firms (like BzzAgent, Zig, and my fave, GoGorilla Media) are David-sized streetfighters who have to deliver Goliath-sized results, armed only with slingshot-sized budgets (Whew! Carried that analogy through…). They’re the punk rock indies traveling in a broken-down van, compared to the somewhat bloated, private-jet superstars of Madison Avenue.

As Zig’s Creative Director Aaron Starkman said in response to a whup-ass “Haunted House” campaign it put together for Scream TV:

“In today’s weird marketing environment, you’ve got to out-smart, not out-spend.”

That reminds me of my days at Just For Laughs, when Bruce Hills and I used to scam First-Class flight upgrades armed only with Festival swag. “Any schmuck can buy spend $12,000 for a First Class ticket to London,” we used to say, “but it takes a REAL MAN to sit right next to him for $319, a stuffed puppet and a couple of t-shirts.”

Same thing goes in marketing. Any schmuck can spend zillions on an integrated campaign, but it takes a real man (or woman…calm down, I’m just drawing a parallel to the statement above) to do something Surprising that people will talk about on a shoestring.

Brandweek recently published its annual tribute to the off-beaters, and laid down five rules of marketing, guerilla-style. I particularly enjoyed rule #1:

Don’t Get Arrested

“…when the cops come, do what they say. You may also want to add some bail money to the budget.”

Boy-oh-boy, can I relate! More than two decades ago, I owned a promo agency (hey, my Surprise street cred runs long) and my job was to launch the American Rock Café, a Hard Rock clone in Montreal, with bombastic brouhaha on an inverse relationship to its miniscule budget. So what I did was hire a loud Beatles-imitator band called The Beasties, put them and some Marshall Amps on a rickety flat-bed truck, and paraded them through the Downtown streets at lunch-hour.

The reaction was insane. People poured out of stores and restaurants, looked down from office windows, and got out of their cars in mid-street to catch the action.

Equally as interested was a squad car of Montreal's men in blue, who stopped the truck and demanded what was going on. I was following in the car behind, and jumped to defend my stroke of genius.

“Where’s your parade permit?” I was asked, and quite gruffly to boot. I didn’t have one; a parade permit would’ve cost more than the entire operation.

I pulled out the only piece of legitimacy I had on me.

“This is a permit to film a TV commercial!” the cop roared. “Where are the cameras?”

And at that, I reached into my front seat and pulled out my Dad’s ol’ Bell & Howell 35mm film camera. Circa 1966.  Void of batteries, film, and most working  parts.  Basically, the world's weakest insurance policy.

Miraculously, the cop got back in his car and The Beasties continued to soothe the savage breast of the Montreal lunch crowd.

I learned two lessons that day:

1) Big Balls Beat Big Budgets

2) The Camera Is Mightier Than The Gun

So here's to marketing's Guerillas...wherever they're swinging!

All is Wellington and Done

With apologies to The Pretenders, I am back on the train, gang. Coming home. And wary of Stewards carrying scalding coffee.

One of the great Pow!s during my brief sojourn in Toronto was learning ‘bout a heartwarming and coffer-filling initiative launched by Wellington Financial, one of Canada’s leading tech financing specialists. Playing against the stereotype of selfish, cash-grabbing Scrooges (a key “How To” in generating Surprise), Wellington donated all profits generated by its loan portfolio and its general partnership on Tuesday, December 12 to a handful of charitable organizations in and around its home base of the aforementioned city (strict Montreal by-laws prevent me from mentioning the word “Toronto” twice in the same paragraph).

And if you think this is an insubstantial amount, you OBVIOUSLY don’t know Wellington.

No wonder its Prez and CEO Mark McQueen is one of the People I Dig.

Even more so now…

Hot Wet Crotch

Here I am again, talking to strangers.

I'm on an early-morning train ride to Toronto—a rather bumpy one, I must add—and the woman next to me peers over my shoulder, leers into the laptop and asks me what I’m writing about.

Normally, I would try to deflect this conversation into oblivion (as I did last week in New York), but I feel kinda bad for the woman, because about 20 minutes ago, the Steward (is that what these guys are called on trains?) spilled a full cup of hot coffee into her lap.

So I told her I’m writing for my blog about Surprise.

She’s incredulous. “You mean like ‘Surprise parties’ and jumping out of a cake and all that stuff? You write a blog based on that?”

“Uh, yes, I guess,” I reply.

But what I’m really thinking is:

“Uh, No. Not in the least.”

Despite its innocent-enough moniker and Technicolor image, Surprise doesn’t have to be frivolous. In fact, to work—particularly in the business and personal relationship framework I set it up within—it has to be rather profound.

The Surprise that truly connects, that bonds its sender and recipient, is rife with meaning. And perhaps the best definition of meaning I’ve come across in a long while can be found in a synapse-snapping article about the merging of video games and art in the current Atlantic Monthly. To wit:

"Meaning is the catalyst that turns action into drama.

Meaning requires words, not just sounds.

It requires characters, not figures.

It requires dramatic shape: a sense that action is leading to some transformation or resolution."

So sorry Ms. Sitting-Next-To-Me; Surprise ain’t just a “Gotcha!” It goes way deeper than a jack-in-the-box.

Or to put it another way, my kind of Surprise is a Pow! Right Between The Eyes.

Yours is a Spilled Coffee Right Between The Legs.

CLEAR!!!

I know I’ve been-a-preachin’ that shock is a key component in cutting through the clutter of modern marketing, but this kinda takes it to new extremes.

Dutch electronics giant Philips recently published a glossy cardboard magazine insert, a mini-catalog really, topped by the headline “Give The Gift of Simplicity” (dull, I know…they should’ve read this previous post) and offering free wrapping and shipping of Philips products from their Amazon site.

So far, so what.

But tucked away bottom right, amongst its relatively benign brethren of Norelco razors, portable DVD players, single-serve coffee makers and electric toothbrushes was the candy-colored Philips HeartStart Home Defribrillator, touted by the tagline “Simply designed so anyone can use it to save a life.”

All jokes aside (and there are pul-lenty!), I’m sure that this device is actually quite practical, but it does seem a tad out of place as a Christmas gift.

Perhaps Philips should’ve waited until January to start marketing it…when the credit card bills roll in.

The “Five Things” Get Personal

When it’s distilled down to its most basic core, marketing is about relationships. Pure. Simple. Very Touchy-Feely.

Therefore, when I preach that Surprise is perhaps the most important aspect of contemporary marketing, its influence goes way beyond merely what we buy, and extends into relationships of all types.

Most notably the personal kind.

So, when I said Friday that I would dig deeper into the ramifications of The Five Things Meme—which has become so viral that Vladimir Putin could use it to get rid of the next rogue Russian spy—this is where I was going. (Uh, into personal relationships, not Russia...)

Think back to your first date with your current, or most recent, significant other. In most cases, it was a real treat. But even if it was the Date From Hell, what mattered most was your Surprise learnings.

First dates are the place where the Five Things Meme gets played out face-to-face. There’s a relative stranger in front of you, and for this random pairing to have even the slightest hope of ever becoming a relationship, you need to establish some common ground. So you toss out a few factoids, hoping they’ll result in a positive reaction.  And the positive reactions that really magnetize you two are the ones that raise the eyebrows, the “I didn’t know”s.

“I didn’t know you were into Tom Waits!”

or

“I didn’t know you were so environmentally conscious!”

or

“I didn’t know you also had a parent die of cancer.”

or, in my case,

“I didn’t know you were such a lunatic!”

With The Five Things Meme, bloggers and their readers all over the world are embarking on virtual “first dates,” so to speak, and no matter how revealing their previous writings may be, they are—hopefully!—unearthing a scoopful of fresh Pow! with their Five Things post.

I don’t wanna get all Dr. Phil on you here, but the diminishing element of Surprise over the years is why so many personal relationships break down. After a while amongst couples, every action is expected, every story has been told dozens of times and every move is choreographed. Predictability breeds contempt, and is the lifeblood of divorce lawyers everywhere.

So if this new-age chain letter is finding ultra-traction, it’s because of the newfound spark of Surprise it is generating between the blogosphere relationships we have previously established.

To its further credit, it is also establishing a whole new batch of relationships, like the one I now have with Nancy Friedman over at Away With Words.  And until she reads this very line, she didn't even know one existed!

One last point on personal relationships: wanna keep yours going?  Then keep finding ways to Surprise the one you love. It ain’t easy, and some will backfire (somewhat like Kid Rock seeing Pam Anderson in the Borat movie), but I guarantee the effort to return of the wide-eyed discovery of your first date will result in excitement, conversation, interest and a solidification of your bond.

And if not, you can always use it as a story in your next Five Things revelation.

Hearing Update 1

A little package caused a really big stir this week. 

Artist Frank Cipra took some time out from designing NHL goalie masks and sent along the first prototype of my designer hearing aid concept first discussed here about two weeks ago.

In a unanimous vote of approval, just about everyone who saw it flipped out, from my co-workers to my friends to my family.  Even some folks with perfect hearing looked at it in envy, coveting the effect of a growling skull poking out of one's ear.

Also got an update from jeweler David Maidor, who is working out the gold shell and trying to ensure that the precious metal won't interfere with the precious operation of the electronics inside.

The Cipra model gets shipped to Nick Laperle at Sonomax on Monday to insert the hardware, but I wanted to give you a peek below before it hits the road.

Man, even if it doesn't work, it's so cool I may STILL decide to wear it...

High Five

I hate chain letters.  Never liked 'em, never sent 'em.  But this is a little different. 

First of all, it's a challenge, and I don't back down from them lightly.  Secondly, it came from two trusted sources in less than 24 hours--from old buddy and Meister-blogger Mitch Joel and from new buddy Michael Wagner.  And finally, it segues so snugly into this tome's passionate theme that the team at Surprise Central has given it the unanimous thumbs up.

I speak of "The Five Things Meme," a social media tagging experience best explained by Mitch himself right here.  In a nutshell, it asks recipients to reveal "Five Things You Wouldn't Know About Me" to their blog's audience--an exercise in Surprise if there ever was one--and then send the dare over to five other folks. 

I'll delve deeper into the ramifications of this over the weekend, but the challenge to come up with five unknown personal factoids in the age of insta-Google (not to mention every tale I already spun in my tell-all book I Almost Killed George Burns) was indeed, uh, well...challenging.

But I think I pulled it off, so without any further adue...

1) My first career goal was to be a garbageman.  I was about three-and-a-half years old and saw these guys outside my window at night, making all sorts of loud noise, throwing large cans around at random, and jumping on-and-off of a moving truck.  "What a gig!" I remember thinking. "Where do I sign up?" 

2) I have been accused of having what could be called a "bad temper," the worst of which once erupted volcanic-like when I was at Just For Laughs and I trashed my entire office--desk, bookshelves, windows, coffee cups-- with a baseball bat.  My assistant Diane, with me for over a decade now but then in her first month on the job, hid under her desk to escape the flying shrapnel.  Diane now sits safely three offices away from me...but the baseball bat is still within arm's length behind my desk. Just in case...just in case.

3) I love Cool Whip (particularly Cool Whip Light, which has only 35 calories in three heaping tablespoons!), Kraft's non-dairy, neo-synthetic, cloud-like whipped topping.  I put it on just about everything, even resort to eating it out of the tub, and as an added bonus, let my dog Shaydee lick the spoon when I'm done. 

4) I collect rare books, and some of my most prized possessions are first editions of Ayn Rand's We The Living and Atlas Shrugged as well as a signed first edition (complete with scribble of a Campbell's Soup can) of Andy Warhol's autobiography The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (From A to B and Back Again)

5) While known to be somewhat outgoing , I am incredibly uncomfortable and shy at parties.  I am much more at ease on stage in front of 5,000 than at a dinner party of five.

So there.  And now, it's over to you Tim Sanders, Rick Spence, Austin Hill, Roger Von Oech and Shardy (Martine, you would've been included but you don't blog, and if you did, it would evaporate the blogosphere). 

Zzzzzzzzzz...

It's 1:12 a.m.

I am zonked.  Gone.  Exhausted.

Spent last night hosting the 4th Annual Battle of the Bands to benefit Montreal's Maimonides Geriatric Center.  I can hardly keep my eyes open, but there's so much adrenalin running through my veins, I can't sleep.  So I'll regale you with a little anecdote of the evening.

The show opened with me and four talented musicians from Airborne playing Green Day's "American Idiot."  No political statement, just a song well suited to my limited vocal range.

As I strolled through the crowd during the sets of one of the REAL bands, an old friend (Ben Kaye, who works with Celine Dion) pulled me over and said in shock:

"I never knew you could sing!"

My answer, one that I've been waiting all my life to deliver, paraphrasing the great Charlie Chaplin who responded in a similar way after warbling an Enrico Caruso tune at a party (does that sentence syntax make sense?), was:

"I can't.  I can just imitate Green Day!"

Well...at least I thought it was amusing...

And I do the same thing all over tomorrow night.  Uh, tonight that is.

Okay, okay, I'm going to bed.  Video to come soon. 

Dum and Dummer

'Twas at a meeting the other day, and to keep us going, the host provided a table-top of candy for continual sugar rush.  Predominant among the goodies were those mini-lollipops called Dum Dums, made since 1924 by the legendary Spangler Candy Company.  There were a gaggle of colors and flavors, from 100th Anniversary Banana to Cherry Cola and those gathered toyed and picked at the before choosing one. 

Well, he asks with pride, guess which flavor was the first to "sell out"?

The "Mystery Flavor"!

I, of course, was one of the first to grab it, but even after a few minutes of sucking, still couldn't put my finger on the taste (that sounds kinda unsanitary, but you get my drift).   In fact, nobody could.  So I did a little bit of sleuthing on the Spangler website and it told me that:

"The mystery pop is a mixture of two flavors (the end of one batch of candy meets the beginning of the next batch). Our candy lines are continuous and the switch over from one flavor to another results in some pops containing both flavors."

Ahh, some old-fashioned efficiency and ingenuity!  Rather than clean out the mixer, the company takes the "impure" flavor, wraps in it a ??? and sells it to us as a Surprise.   And judging by the reaction at the meeting a darn popular Surprise at that.  Once again, the thrill of the unknown trumps the comfort of consistency!

What really made me laugh was the fact that the lollies were labeled "Artificial Mystery Flavor"...as opposed to the Natural Mystery Flavor, I guess.

Cool company.  And a long-lasting one too. (Longevity strikes again, ha-ha!)  Best part--you can order Dum Dums in a 30-pound carton, about 1,800 of the lil' suckers, many Mysteries among 'em, for about 43 bucks directly from the Spangler folks.

Theory 2--Intimate Goes Big

Got an interesting comment on my Stay With Me A While post from consultant Michael Wagner of the White Rabbit Group, saying that the concept of longevity being Surprising is disturbing.

I agree with Michael (hence the post in the first place), but that may just be my age talking.  Longevity was instilled as a core value when I was young (something that lasts long = good; something that doesn’t = bad), but to my teenage sons, change and being able to adapt to it seems way more fundamentally important.  It's a generational thing, I guess.

Alas Michael, don’t despair. I believe that the passing of this core value will be counter-balanced by the resurrection of one seemingly tossed upon the scrap heap (three cheers for the new economy where nothing is ever truly thrown away, but “recycled”).  Hence yet another one of my theories (and you knew that I was due):

Intimacy is the next Google

Sounds wacky, but here’s what I mean: Anything you want to know, you can get in an instant. Virtually any major event—sports, entertainment, news—can be brought to your living room instantaneously, and presented on giant screens in HD with Dolby 5.1 surround sound.  Personal digital networks span the globe. And if we’re not satisfied with our own lives, there are numerous outlets for Second Lifes. The world is at your fingertips…but there are fewer and fewer real touchpoints.

That’s why I believe—never mind believe, why I’ll bet the farm—that intimacy will not only be cherished, but traded like a valuable currency.

In the near future, I foresee people paying for intelligent conversation like they pay for sex today. Universities will become like rock concerts, with the brightest profs commanding superstar salaries.

And speaking of rock concerts, while U2 blasts out of your home entertainment system, you’ll be paying thousands of dollars for intimate audiences with society’s smartest and most intriguing in cozy surroundings. (The next logical step to events like Salim Khoja’s Power Within conferences, which consistently sell out and attract thousands to mega convention centers.)

You may say I’m a dreamer...but I actually tested this one out. Last November, to celebrate our wedding anniversary, my wife and I invited 45 friends to our house and treated them—and I do mean “treat” in the most majestic of ways—to an acoustic living-room concert by one of my all-time favorite bands, England’s The Strawbs.  Three musicians in front of the fireplace playing, and the rest of us totally absorbed on couches, cushions, standing in the hallway...as one. To this day, I STILL get glowing comments from those who were there about the magic spirit of that evening, and wide-eyed inquiries from those who had heard about it from others.

So, if you’re a Silicon Valley VC looking for the next big opportunity to bring to scale, look for scaling it the other way. I guess Seth Godin said it best with the title of his last book: Small Is The New Big. 

Well, it WILL be.  Mark my words. 

Too Good To Be True

Somewhere, at the bottom of a trash can near Union Square in New York lies a half-eaten dessert.

It's a piece of "Chocolate Pizza" from Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar (his logo at left), an innovative resto/boutique concept; "a shrine for this unique culture," he calls it. I had read of this place in Brandweek, was intrigued, and made a note to check it out next time in town.

So here I was, in line with a bunch of people way too "into chocolate" for their own good, I thought. As I waited for my slice, watching others down chocolate from thick syringes, the lady next to me turned and told me the treat I had ordered was "the best thing she has ever eaten." (What is it about me in New York restaurants that attracts chatty strangers?)

Caveat emptor. There's an old expression in marketing, a "buyer beware" red flag that goes: "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is."

Well, Max's concoction is no exception to the rule.

It WAS too good to be true. 

Way too good.

In fact, the lady in line undersold.

HOLY JEEZ!  It was incredible!  In fact, Max's whole concept was. He does to chocolate what Starbucks did to coffee--elevates it from commodity to premium status, and increases the price point accordingly. (So what, you say; so did Godiva. Different story. Godiva is snob appeal and high-end, but dull. Max is inventive, fun, expensive AND mass-appealing. He's Willy Wonka to Godiva's Jeeves the snobby butler. But I digress.)

He says he is "creating a new chocolate culture worldwide." I can argue that locations in New York, Israel, Singapore, the Philippines and Australia does not the world make. But I can't argue with what he is creating.  "Chocolate By The Bald Man" is a chocolate experience like no other. 

The chocolate pizza kinda replicated its Italian cousin in look, but was a succulent pastry slab covered in white and dark cocoa chunks and topped with either melted marshmallows or "crunchy pieces" (my poison of choice).

So if it was so orgasmic, why did I throw away half?  Because I'm a fitness fanatic, and I knew that to work off the rest of it would be an hour or so I didn't have over the next two days. But don't think I don't regret my toss as I sipped a late-night soup and munched on a green salad a few hours later.

The biggest Surprise out of all of this? 

I don't even LIKE chocolate!!

Max, I'll be back. Maybe even tomorrow...

Meanwhile, some rattus norvegicus is telling his Big Apple buddies "Hey guys!  You gotta try this stuff!"

The Constructive Lumps

On one hand, I should be honored--the entrepreneurial-centric blog Startupspark mentions lil' ol'  Pow! in the same breath as Jeremy Schoemaker's Shoemoney and Dharmesh Shah's OnStartups in his monthly advice-rendering Blogtipping post.   Great Surprise to end my week .

On the other hand, I'm the only one that Benjamin Yoskovitch, the spark behind Startupspark, actually doles out some concrete advice to, choosing to throw nothing but glistening, gilded rose petals in the direction of the other two.   Don't worry; I'll sweep up what they leave in their wake.

Okay, so I'm a relative newbie to the blogosphere, and like Sylvester in the Tweety Bird cartoons, I'm prepared to take my lumps. 

Alright...so I exaggerate.  Frankly, all criticism I get should be as constructive and immediately applicable as Mr. Yoskovitch's.  So Ben, I hear ya, and I'm gonna apply some of your wisdom to this here page.  In return, I'm gonna plug your weekly Carnival of Entrepreneurs...if you give me the cotton candy concession.  (And if you tell me who to blow, I may even submit to it.)  So get out your umbrella, my friend, and prepare for the deluge of page hits sent your way from Surprise Central.

There are two types of people in this world (well three actually, if you count Easton Ellsworth, who coined the phrase and pioneered the concept of Blogtipping):  those who criticize, and those who make things better.  And Ben, you are a fine example of the latter...as long as I listen.

Watch this space!   
 

Stay With Me A While

Here's something I find Surprising:

People are Surprised by the concept of LONGEVITY.

I tell the bartender at New York's Carlton Hotel I've been married for 22 years and he looks at me as if I were either nuts or the Dalai Lama.  Someone at a meeting yesterday mentions he's been with the company 12 years and the rest of the room breaks into a cacaphony of gasps and guffaws. In this months Business 2.0 magazine, Xerox Chairman and CEO Anne Mulcahy explains the reasons how and why she's  a company "lifer" (spending over 30 years with 'em).

I guess in an age where each new marriage faces a 50:50 chance of ending in divorce, where pro athletes show allegiance to the team called "Highest Bidder" and where corporate culture embraces moving up by moving out, those that stay put are seen as an anomoly.  At best.

People have always admired long-lasting milestones--the 100th birthday, the Golden wedding anniversary, the 61st blog post (okay, so that's not as monumental...). My sense these days that the reaction is shifting from the sweet smile of recognition to the Wide-Eyed, O-mouthed look of Surprise.

Earlier on in this blog, I made a case how product life cycles are getting shorter faster.

Remove the word "product" and the concept still holds.