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

A Giant Among Men

One more remnant from last week's Sports Conference. 

After getting off stage from my panel on mobile, the first person to approach me was one of my all-time heroes, NBA legend and jazz afficionado extraordinaire Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

If things go well, Kareem and Airborne Mobile will find a way to work together (NDAs are in place!), but I think I may have to re-fit our boardroom with phone books for me to sit on during our brainstorm sessions.

Here's a iPhone snapshot of the momentous encouner, the meeting of giants! (P.S. I'm not saying that he's tall, but that's the sun shining top right.  And no, I'm not on my knees.).

Flying First Class?

Another note from last week's Sports Business Journal conference, where the Cliché du Conference seemed to be:

"A FLIGHT TO QUALITY"

as in "in these tough economic times, consumers will demand more; we'll be seeing a Flight To Quality."

Oh really?

Given Wal-Mart's Q3 surge (up 10% while the competition gushes blood), and the reality of job losses, fear in the marketplace and a suspended economy, I think the flight is more to value and necessity than quality at this stage of the game.

In fact, I wouldn't even call it "a flight" anywhere.  I think the proper term should be:

"A BUS RIDE TO SURVIVAL"

Feel free to use it at the upcoming conference of your choice.

The Three Integral Factors of Sports

Some takeaway from the day I spent speaking, and listening, at the Sports Business Journal's Media and Technology Conference last week:

Hearing some of the industry's power players ruminating on the essence of sports and sports deal-making, I realized how crucial Surprise is in this industry.  Without it, there are no leagues, teams or stars--imagine what sports would be like if you knew the outcome of every game and/or play.

Going one step further (I had a lot of time to think at this event, trust me), I realized that there are three factors at the root of sports:

1) BEAUTY
...as in "My God, did you see that?  What a play!!!"  It's the aesthetic and athletic beauty of the player confrontations that make up the highlight reels.

2) COLLECTIVITY
...as in being part of the team, wearing the colors, shouting out the chant and theme song, connecting with brilliant like-minded fans like yourself...and turning on those stupid enough to do the same for the other side.

3) UNCERTAINTY
...in essence, the Surprise element as discussed before, without which there would be no sports.

The future of sports as I see it?  Find ways to integrate #3 into numbers 1 and 2.  And given the proliferation of fantasy sports, the play-along factor of the game is only going to get bigger.  The more people are given the chance to participate rather than just spectate, the greater this industry is going to grow.

Motivation 101

A little Airborne Mobile anecdote today, but an inspiring one. 

Here's a verbatim recounting of a quick conversation I had with Alexei Prosverine, a one-time Russian cosmonaut hopeful who's been doing technical marvels for us almost since our beginning, passing each other near our kitchen the other day.

Me (said perfunctorily):  "Hey Alexei, what's going on?"
Alexei (said with a wide smile): "Everything!"

Hope you enjoy your day, and your job, as much as he seems to.

Exes vs. Innies--The Next Business Battle

At first glance, Dorothy Wetzel's recent commentary piece in Brandweek ("Why ROE Should Be Your New ROI") appeared to be yet another biz op-ed that re-hashes an old idea as a cure for what ails us now that the world economy has gone into the crapper. 

Luckily, I took a second glance.

Dorothy is the Managing Director of Glow Worm, a Publicis Consumer Healthcare company, and is a vet of pharmaceutical marketing.  And while the basic tenet of "Return on Engagement as a marketing tactic" has been oft-discussed (Max Levchin's take on the subject was particularly profound), I think that Dorothy's observations on the difference between company personalities that practice ROE and ROI was eloquent and very bright...and thus bears repeating:

"Put another way, think of ROE as an extrovert and ROI as
an introvert. Extroverts get their energy and ideas through interaction with others, while introverts thrive on inward contemplation.

"An extroverted company, therefore, drives growth by
seeking out and implementing customer ideas, while the introverted company builds sales through analysis"

Love the distinction and the simplicity--the business world divided into two, Introverted and Extroverted.  Three cheers from everybody here at Surprise Central, who know that our core idea and passion is the tool that helps turn the former into the latter.

And stay that way.

Question #2: The Word on Worthiness

Well, I got myself into this last week, so I guess I should continue...

Motivation may have "The Secret"; business has "The Questions."  And the way I see it, there are three of them that need to be answered not just for success, but for the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you're actually doing something positive with your working day...and your working life.

The inspiration for the second question comes from conversations I used to have with my late buddy, comedian Richard Jeni.  A complex man of much introspection, Jeni and I would spend hours on the balcony of his Hollywood high-rise condo, ruminating on how life was a series of trade-offs. 

Trade-offs like:

"Yes, the weather in L.A. is spectacular, but then there are those things called earthquakes."

"Yes, the you can choose not to be sucked up into the vortex of the Hollywood lifestyle, but you'd have to live in some small town in Idaho, and lord knows it's hard to base a showbiz career there."

And on we would go for hours, always coming to the same conclusion: Life is a portfolio--there are wins and losses, and true peace only comes to those who can accept the balance between the two.

So here's Question #2, a quick ponder with mammoth ramifications:

IS THIS WORTH THAT?

Many times, we never ask the question and have to pick up the aftermath pieces of the answer; in other words, "Well, that wasn't worth it..."   Too bad.  Just a little proactivity can prevent a whole maelstrom of post-negativity. 

There is no easy way out, and nothing without consequences.  The current financial meltdown could've benefited big time--and possibly have been avoided--from a little time spent reflecting on Question #2. (Can't say we weren't warned--"Wanna keep your money safe?  Then accept a 3% annual return.  Want more than that?  Gotta take a risk."  Hey, as I said, it's all about trade-offs.) 

Even the basic premise of this blog--creating Surprise--works best with a "Is This Worth That?" filter.   By its very nature, you know that a Surprise is a game changer.  You just have  to decide how much game you want to change. Without it, you're status quo and boring.  But if you go too far... (As I've said before, Surprise is like nitroglycerin; a little bit gets your heart pumping, too much blows up in your face.)

No matter what you do, want to do, are thinking of doing...every action could benefit from a bit of reflection upon the four RED words above that together make up Question #2. 

Frankly, asking it is the easy part.

The tough part is accepting your answers.

So, to re-cap:

Question #1:   What is the gift you give
Question #2:   Is this worth that?
Question #3:   Coming next week

Open Bar!

Charlie Hoehn is a bright young guy (check him out here), and one of the most faithful FOPs out there (another offshoot of my son Aidan's remarkable network).  He's got great taste, and a detective's nose for what's cool.

Like this:

From Japan comes these Barcodes that aren't just artistic and creative, but actually work when scanned.  Decades ago, Mad Magazine ran a piece that actually predicted something like this (don't recall the whole thing, but one barcode had mascot Alfred E. Neuman cutting it like grass), but the fact that the D-Barcode company can make something eye-catching, creative and functional out of the most mundane of imagery once again eliminates excuses for those too lazy or afraid to try something new.

Take this one step further with Limited Edition, "Collector's" or famous artist Barcodes (can you imagine what Takashi Murakami would do?), we could soon see products being purchased not for what they are, but for the scan-able tag stamped upon 'em.

See more of them here. 

And thanks again, Charlie!

Laughing in the Face of Crisis

Gotta love the folks at Kemo Sabe, the outrageously opulent western wear emporium in the tony towns of Vail and Aspen, Colorado. Here's why--

Of the nine Surprise-generating tactics introduced in my upcoming Pow! book, Tactic #7 is one called "Business Stupidity" (the polar opposite of Business Intelligence, I suppose), where you do things so ridiculously wrong, they come out very, very right.  Case in point is the attitude of the aforementioned cowboy outfitter, who goad people into overspending with corporate slogans like:

"Calling all cowboys with 10-gallon wallets!"

Well, you'd figure that with the world of finance imploding, a place like Kemo Sabe would lay low for a while while the dust settles.  But these guys are obviously nasty sidewinders and varmints, who believe that austerity is for sissies.  Yes, they may recognize that the going is tough, but they've got their own special way of dealing with it:

Gutsy, refreshing, ballsy, and double-barreled Pow!  Well done, Kemo Savvy!

Theory 21 and Question #1--Giving The Gift (A Lesson From Len)

My friend Len Blum is a former screenwriter (Private Parts, The Pink Panther to name just two) and a current yoga instructor.  He's also one of the wisest guys I know...and I mean that not in a Mafioso way.

At lunch last week, Len's zen-like manner managed to sum up in six words the solution to the age old problem: how do I sell something?

Before enlightening you, let me put everything into context.  We were discussing a video project he had pitched to an author, who's one and only question to Len was the succinct: "Will it sell books?"

Len's answer to him was simple, and brutally honest:  "I don't know."

That's not the enlightening part.

But as a guy who is overseeing four new product initiatives at Airborne Mobile, not to mention anxiously awaiting the February launch of my oft-mentioned Pow! book, the obsession on how to best sell something--and better still, to know how it will sell in advance--eats away at me incessantly.

So here's what Len said that threw me for a loop:  If you really want to know if what you have is going to sell, ask yourself this:

"WHAT IS THE GIFT YOU GIVE?"

It's really that simple, that profound, and that difficult.  All in one.

What are you giving your customer, your client, your audience, that they will un-wrap?  That they will cherish?  That they will display and show others?  That they will care about?

The gift is not a feature, or a gimmick, or an add-on.  It's the core of the product or service itself.  It's the thing that bonds it to someone who will buy it. And no matter if you're selling something that can slide into a wallet or be too big for an airplane hangar, the gift is not the physicality, but the intangible. 

Too often, we get caught up in systems.  In what has worked before.  In process.  But that was then.  This is now.  And as our financial markets show us, even when we know, we never really learn.

Taking this one step further, it's one of the key integral questions of business (the other two will be the subject of future posts...and perhaps the basis of my next book).  So before you make your next move, no matter what you're selling, ask yourself Question #1:  What is the gift you give?

And if you're not delighted with the answer...you'd better keep shopping

The Power of Pow!--Two More Examples

A little bit of vindy is always a treat, especially when the sources are as mega as Amazon and Seth Godin, who both unleashed a little Surprise in their recent marketing tactics.

Godin, like most authors are wont to do, urged fans and followers to lay down some advance orders his his new book Tribes.  His difference is that not only did the fan boys and girls (of which I am unabashedly one) receive the book from Amazon.com, 800 CEO Read or wherever, on Day One, but they also were sent a Surprise second copy IN ADVANCE of the first, which Le Godin urged recipients to pass along to friends, co-workers, etc.  Great, textbook, unexpected, value-added Pow!

And then there's Amazon, which proved that Surprise tactics are for everyone, no matter how behemothian you may be.  I recently ordered a CD for my son from them, which was followed up with the usual service messages...and then this:

Hello from Amazon.com,
Thanks to the recent purchase(s) you made in the Music store at Amazon.com, you are eligible to receive a 12-issue subscription to Rolling Stone, a $6.48 value.

To receive your 12-issue subscription, please click on the link below, which will direct you to a secure form at Amazon.com where you can sign in to your account, and sign up for your subscription.

What's the catch? None. We're happy to provide our customers with the benefits of partnering with a top magazine publisher. This is a bonus offer, and there is no automatic renewal.

Yeah, yeah...you can say that Amazon is huge and can strong-arm people into giving stuff away like this, or that Godin is the dean of new marketing and will be supported by his publisher in such an expensive undertaking.  But the fact is this:

Neither one HAS TO do this

And even better still:

They both understand THE VALUE in doing this.

So...what's your excuse again?

Pow! The TV Series

Well, close.

The people at 800-CEO-Read, the specialized homestead for business books on the Web, have been very kind to me and to my upcoming Pow! book, and have offered me five months of "behind the scenes/making of a business book" Guest Post promo on the company's influential Daily Blog.

But in true Pow! fashion, the company's dynamic duo of Aaron and Dylan Schleicher and faithful sidekick Kate Mytty threw me a challenge by saying: "Given the nature of your book, we expect it to be different from what anybody else has done."

Here we go again.

Well, the end result starts today, as 800-CEO-Read has posted the first of five Pow! Right Between The Eyes! videos.  Each one focuses on a specific topic, and although kinda tongue-in-cheek, each has a serious underlying theme (hey, it still is a business book after all...).  They're all homemade, written by yours truly and directed my Airborne Mobile's madly creative Scott Brooks (who designed the look of this here blog as well).

The first is about the pressure to have a gimmick to sell business books these days.  So why are you still here?  Click THIS and check out Video #1 right now. 

Talking At You in November

Okay shameless plug time.

A couple of important speaking gigs for yours truly throughout November, starting with another appearance at the Sports Business Journal's Media and Technology Conference on the 19th and 20th, where I'll be talking about the integration of mobile content with sports.  Other folks spouting wisdom there include the legendary sportscaster Jim Nantz, the acerbic President and CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media Bob Bowman, and the newly-installed COO of the NHL (a longtime Airborne Mobile client), John Collins. 

The last time I did this event, I went for a jog along the waterfront before my scheduled appearance time, got lost in the gorgeous fall day, and ended up having to appear on stage in my drenched shorts, sweatshirt and Under Armour skull cap.  As goofy as I looked, I must've said something right, because the Sports Business Journal had this to say:

"Call him crazy at your own risk."

Hmmm...wonder what I should wear this time?

Moving right along, a couple of weeks later, on Friday the 28th, I'll be in Vancouver as part of The Art of Sales, alongside best-selling authors like Jeffrey Gitomer, the King of Negotiators Herb Cohen, Frances Cole Jones and Neil Rackham in the prestigious, 2000-seat Centre in Vancouver for Performing Arts.

Scott Kavanagh and his crew have put together a great PDF about the event, which is well worth looking at even if you can't make it there.  Feast your eyes upon it by clicking here.

I'll have the laptop and Berry with me at both gigs, so check in for posts here and Twitter tweets there.

Virgin Kleenex--Tissues as an Emotional Crutch

Okay, there's a serious message coming, but I'll start this post off rather sophomorically by projecting myself back to the hallways of Sir Winston Churchill High, where Kleenex and other tissues were known by the male population of the school as "snot-rags." 

That was the amount of respect we gave these squares of delicate paper.  They were there to do a job, usually a most unpleasant one, and then unceremoniously tossed away.  My crude-ish high school label aside, I suspect your feelings about the product weren't much different than ours. 

Cut to last week's post about Knorr selling soup as colors, to the Pow!-generating tactic of Wearing Virgin Contact Lenses (the ability to look at something familiar as if you've never seen it before)...and maybe you'll find yourself smiling at Kleenex's new ad campaign, which sees it positioned as an emotional crutch.

I'm trying to track down the genesis of the idea, but one of its defining moments had to come, perhaps as the ultimate coincidence, in the late Randy Pausch's best-selling memoir "The Last Lecture," where he describes the moment of learning of his terminal diagnosis this way:

"I had just learned that I would soon die, and in my inability to stop being rationally focused, I found myself thinking: 'Shouldn't a room like this, at a time like this, have a box of Kleenex? Wow, that's just a glaring operational flaw'."

This ain't about wiping away bodily fluids any more; the "Let It Out" campaign tugs at the heartstrings and shows Kleenex to be an accessory to the more "touchy-feely" moments of our lives, both good and bad.  This from the Kleenex site:

"Have you ever laughed until you cried?
Had a tear-filled hello or goodbye?
It's times like these when we just have to let it out™ — because it helps us feel better.
The Kleenex® brand invites you to let it out™ on this site."

That's just the beginning.  A couple of clicks and you're on a page where you can "Experience The Release" of catalysts like Laugh, Cry, Love, Sing, Joy, Stuff, Scream and Blow (which is more about exploding than it is about expelling mucous from your nose).  What's more, the company also lets you customize your own box to fit the occasions where you may act out one of the aforementioned catalysts.

Off-beat?  Of course, but something's gotta be done for an iconic brand that not only has to overcome the genericization of its brand name, but a 5.9% sales decrease over the past year.

All this said, I am truly touched that a brand so massive is heeding the advice of Surprise Central.

I think I'm gonna cry...