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

Straighten Up And Fly, Right?

This from faithful FOP (that's "Friend of Pow!" for all you newbies) Tyler Wordsworth, who raves about the "next step" in the all-important Surprise Continuum from--pardon the pun--ballsy Air New Zealand:

"Andy - have you seen these? First came the commercial, now they've done their entire in-flight safety video - you know, the ones you and I normally tune out - in body paint! The best part is not only the POW factor but they've used actual pilots, flight attendants, and even the CEO as the actors."

Tyler has reason to be excited (aside from the obvious).  In a most moribund industry, this relatively tiny Kiwi airline has out-Virgined Virgin Air in (sorry!) cheekiness and has (sorry again) showed more staff spirit than Southwest.

The tease factor is incredible; you can almost hear yourself yell "Lower!" or "Zoom out!" to the obviously well-disciplined camera operator (who seems to have cut his or her chops shooting final scenes in Austin Powers flicks).  Perhaps travel writer Mike Barish put it best when he said:

"Seatbelt instructions? In body paint. Life jacket demonstration? In body paint. Water landing safety? Well, you get the picture. Actually, you don't get the whole picture. Some strategically placed luggage and seat backs ensure that.

"Lately, many airlines have replaced the flight attendant demos with clever videos, and Air New Zealand may have just raised the bar for the rest of the industry. And so long as that bar is covering the complimentary bag of nuts..."

Anyway, without any further ado:

Why So Impressed? Dark Knight Lights Up Surprise Marketing

This incredibly-comprehensive, perhaps exhaustive, campaign for "The Dark Knight" won the Cyber Grand Prix in the "viral" category at the Cannes ad competition last week, but over and above (perhaps that should be "beneath and permeating") the campaign was the ongoing use of Surprise as a driving force. 

Phones in cakes, hidden bags in bowling alley lockers; tactics like "Time Bombing" and "Looking in the Rear-View Mirror" outlined in the Pow! book were put to good use...much to the delight of not just everyone at Surprise Central, but obviously to hundreds of thousands around the globe.

Little things mean a lot in Surprise marketing, but see what happens at the other extreme when you decide to throw a lot of money, time and brilliant people at it:

Funalytics--The New Math

About 20 some-odd years ago, right about this time, I was in a state of gut-wrenching dread.

Like dozens of other students just like me, I was lining up to see if I had pulled off a minor miracle and passed Dr. Morty Yalovsky's dreaded Statistics class at McGill University.

The barely-just-over-the-wire sympathy mark of 60 restored my faith in a higher power, and solidified my view that numbers were bad, unless they were yours in the bank.

So here's how I know times have changed big-time:

Numbers have become entertainment.

Analytics, once the raw material and domain of accountants and the most hardcore geeks, have gone mainstream and have become--may I even suggest it?--fun.

Yeah, fun.

Google Analytics slices, dices, shreds and dreadlocks visitation to Surprise Central, not to mention my company Airborne Mobile's site, in a manner so detailed that I know what clothes you are wearing and what you're sipping while reading 'em.

Lijit, the majestic search engine I use for this blog (and a Godsend while researching my own stuff for my Pow! book), provides me with a weekly analysis--for free!--that just five years ago, I'd have to pay some consultancy thousands of dollars for. (And makes me wonder why in the world people are searching here for "Pink Polka".)

Then there's Xobni, the greatest thing to happen to Microsoft Outlook since...well, since Microsoft Outlook.  While it does an incredible job of tracking emails and searching for people and things within them, it also crunches them into a statistical treasure trove of the essential and the sublime. 

For ex, Xobni (that's "Inbox" backwards; how clever) ranks my contacts' email behavior by how many they sent me, how fast they respond, what time of day they do, what day they do the most (I can go on for hours here if I want to).  I can also reverse the look and see how I do amongst all these parameters as well.  The stuff is so fascinating and revealing that sometimes I find myself ignoring the emails themselves, instead too absorbed in the minutiae about them.

The "Funalytics" movement goes further.  In this month's Fast Company, USC prof Marientina Gotsis talks about merging real-world physical activity into a gaming framework (one step further than the Apple/Nike+ iPod/running shoe marriage I suppose, itself documented as part of Wired's cover story this month).  She says:

"It doesn't make sense that your Wii Fit data shouldn't be consolidated into the same system that your doctor uses for tracking your health. 

"Right now, there are practically no interesting applications out there that let you use your personal sensor data or health records to have a fun gaming experience.  That's going to change."

Change it will.  And in a manner guaranteed to Surprise and open up new doors of perception. In fact, I suspect that stats and data, and those who can interpret them in a unique and somewhat twisted manner, will become the new breed of media stars. 

And perhaps even more importantly, it may do for college stats classes everywhere what video games, the 'Net and CGI did for computer classes--make them hip.

Art Well Done, Medium-Rare

Had this kicking around for a few months, but given the buzz of importance being given off by the documentary film Food, Inc., here's something else you can do with toxic burgers other than consumimg them.

A masterpiece from the twisted mind, and hands, of Phil Hansen:

Ski Season in June (Well, Here At Least...)

What better way to celebrate the beginning of summer than with perhaps the most inspiring ski promo since last year's Alberta subway "you are the ad" campaign?

This one's from Irish winter holiday operator DirectSki.com.  During the winter months, they placed these die-cut flyers on car windshields overnight, and if mother nature cooperated, the next morning's snowfall or frost converted the slanted glass into slopes, creating countless Pow! moments in parking lots and city streets.

Inspired, brilliant and effective.  Not expensive either.  Ah yes, little things indeed mean--and impact--a lot. (Much thanks, Slumlord Amin!)

Like Chocolate For Water--Courtesy Marketing (Courtesy of Kevin)

The Pow! book enjoyed the glow of a good review this week from Kevin Tumlinson and his RandomBits blog.  More than just the kind words though, what makes this more gratifying is that my"Little Things Mean a Lot" story about Christmas chocolates in line at Chapters bookstore inspired Kevin to come up with an associated story and Pow! moment of his own. To wit:

"For some reason, when I read this story, it brought up a memory from about fifteen years ago. I was at an Earth Day concert with a girl I'd been dating for a few months. We were still young enough in our relationship that I had let her convince me to see a live performance of Lisa Loeb.

"That day, the temperature was certainly in the triple digits, and the sun was brutal. People were being carted out in ambulances. Random concert goers were bursting into flame. And, of course, the vendors saw this as an opportunity to rake everyone over the glowing coals that made up the parking lot at our feet.

"Water, suddenly the most in-demand substance around, was selling in small, two-ounce bottles for a startling five dollars per. Also, they ran out of water around the end of hour two of the ten-hour sweat-fest.

"So, what does this have to do with free chocolate at a Chapters bookstore? I was just thinking, what if some enterprising company had said, "Hey, people like to live! Let's go buy a truck load of ice-cold bottled water, park our company-branded truck out front of this huge gathering of people, and give out free bottles to anyone who comes by!"

"Imagine if they'd had the foresight to get vanity bottles, and put their name and Web address on them. Imagine if they'd done this while asking nothing in return, with maybe the hearty slogan of, "Continue to live...compliments of Kevin." Or insert the name of someone or something YOU'D like promote...

"Imagine that...marketing through courtesy. That's certainly a surprise. I'd love to see more of it."

Well Kevin, the best way to see more of it is to do it yourself. 

What are you, or ANY of you out there, waiting for?

Pirations and Bullshit Slides

A couple of cool self-sightings this past week.  Please suffer my self-indulgence:

1)  First is from the Mitch Joel-edited special Digital Edition of Marketing Magazine (trained as a rock journalist and one-time publisher of a music mag, Mitch does a magnificent job; digital marketing's gain is the publishing industry's loss, trust me), a nice, tight and enjoyable inetrview jaunt with Matt Semansky.

2)  Second is the fallout from a speech I gave at a gathering of Angel Investors on Thursday.  Much thanks to Flow Ventures' Raymond Luk for getting the facts right. (And if you dig Ray's take on the story, you can read the entire experience as I first recalled it three years ago right here.)

The Magic Touch (Theory 26)

My late Auntie Rita never took any business courses.

In fact, an immigrant from the "Old Country," she never even learned to read English.  This is why, when she went to restaurants, she always ordered the exact same thing:

"I'll have what he/she is having."

I thought of Auntie Rita over the weekend while enjoying the camaraderie and bargains at a community sidewalk sale.  Killing some time while waiting for my family to join me, I paraded by the many stalls selling everything from McFarlane Sports action figures and kitchen knick-knacks to high-end fashion and designer eyewear.  Watching the consumer behavior, I realized that despite her lack of formal education (never mind her illiteracy!), Auntie Rita at least understood one of the key, double-fisted secrets of marketing:

1) People want what they can't have

2) People want what others got

This is no great revelation.  Scarcity and envy have been a devilish duo in marketing for years.  But still, sometimes lessons need to be re-learned.  And re-lived.  Live.  Such was my Sunday.

For blocks, I watched it happen over and over.  Items ignored for a spell until touched by someone else, then becoming instantly desirable to many. It was fun to watch, but after a while I decided--perhaps a little nastily--play with people's heads and wallets a bit myself. 

I would head over to a table of goods, pick something up, look at it, handle it...and watched stealthly as others watched me.  Then, as soon as I put it down--WHAM!--somebody else picked it up. They didn't always buy, but the cause-and-effect was VERY effective.

This isn't just brick-and-mortar.  I see this work on-line all the time, most recently with a company called "Beyond The Rack."  They sell "Luxury Brands at Exclusive Prices" in three-or-four day sales periods.  Of course, the items that seem to be most desired are the ones labeled "Sold Out" or "Reserved (read: touched) by Others."

So...what does this mean? 

As marketers, we always want to sell more.  Maybe the answer is to make less.

Or at least, invest in a new breed of secret weapon: The Product Toucher.

 

Goes Great With Brown

As a follow-up to Monday's post, from the sublime to the ridiculous, here's yet another product that's undergone a colorful, non-traditional re-design. 

From the mad mind and majestic hands of illustrator supreme Nate Williams comes this packaging for, well...dog poop bags.

Silly?  Foolish?  Unnecessary?   Perhaps...

But if dogshit bags can take so well to a striking makeover, so can anything you or I make to make our living.

Thanks again Fitzy, and congrats to the folks at Olive Green Dog for this (pronounce carefully!) initiative.

Pow! Finds Its Voice--Available Now on Audible.com

Well, this was indeed a Surprise, and a good one. 

An email from golden-throated Peter Ganim tells me that the release sked of the Pow! audiobook version has been pushed up and is actually now available at Audible.com.  See below:

Peter did a superb job of capturing the feel of the book (and does a mean impression of Russian chess master Garry Kasparov).  You can get a free sample of his work--and mine!--by clicking here. 

Better still, you can actually buy and download it while there.

Okay, so who wants the movie rights?

Hot Fire Extinguishers

Here's yet another example of "Use Virgin Contact Lenses," one of my favorite Surprise-generating tactics outlined in my oft-mentioned Pow! book (actually, they're all my favorites; like my kids, I love all my Surprise-generating tactics equally, but I digress...).

So, we all know that Fire Extinguishers must stand out.  Their visibility is crucial when there's an inferno raging, and having them seamlessly blend into their surroundings would substantially defeat their purpose. 

But why do they have to be red, or white, or any one color?

Such is the "see things again for the first time" breakthrough from Fire Design, a French company whose extinguishing creations stay true to the crucial "Hey, I'm Over Here!" necessity of the product, but re-write the rules of how to stand out.

Check this out, and think of how other such products can benefit from an Virgin Contact Lens viewpoint (like a smoke detector in the shape of a nose, or painted with huge, inhaling lips...but I digress again):

Collect 'em all!  And thanks, Fitzy!

Make A Wish (or "I Dream of Genie")--Theory 25

I spent an afternoon at a VC conference last week, and was depressingly reminded there about the incredible odds against any type of business success.  You've heard 'em all before:

• 95% of all start-ups fail
• 90% of all new products disappear after one year
• Most bands never make it
• Most books don't sell
• Most artists starve
• More actors work in restaurants than on stage
• ( insert your own gloomy statistic here )

So why do we do it?  Why do entrepreneurs seek capital to start businesses?  Why do writers write, do singers sing, do chefs cook?

Because of The Genie.

Here's my theory of success, particularly as it pertains to marketing.

With every product, every business, every new idea, all we are doing, ultimately, is making a wish. 

Yup.  A wish.  We should stop kidding ourselves, we have no control over the outcome.  No matter how much research we do, no matter how diligently we plan, no matter how financially savvy our projections, once we press the "Go" button and launch, the fate of our endeavor is in the hands of a greater power.

That power is what I call "The Genie."

Well, it's WHO I call The Genie, actually, as The Genie is that one person whose endorsement, whose action on your behalf, whose belief in what you've done will be enough to start what Malcolm Gladwell coined "The Tipping Point."  Even if a company, an organization, a conglomerate does the eventual pushing, it's always one person within it who was the catalyst to get it moving.

That's The Genie.  Talk about One-to-One marketing!

Brian Govern is The Genie for the Three-Wolf Moon T-Shirt.  In the film (and book) The Soloist,  journalist Steve Lopez is The Genie for emotionally-challenged cello prodigy Nathaniel Ayers.  Maverick VC Roger McNamee is The Genie for Palm.  By making us a mobile video partner, Paul Palmieri of Verizon Wireless was The Genie to Airborne Mobile back in the rocky days of 2001.  Some Pfizer scientist who noticed the strange side-effect of the failed UK-92,480 drug was The Genie for Viagra. Oprah has been The Genie to too many people to count.

But you don't need to be powerful, or well-placed; anyone can be The Genie.  (I really should say The Genies plural, as throughout the lifecycle of a business, a product or a career, there could be--should be!--many of 'em.)  It could be a blogger.  A housewife.  A college student.  A preacher. An enemy.  You just never know in advance. You never know who's reading, who's watching, who's listening, who just happens to be in the right place at the right time for you.

So why do we market?  To reach this Genie.  Whoever it may be.

It's why we advertise, why we reach out to bloggers, why we Tweet, why we spend money devising crafty PR stunts, why we sponsor events, why we do media tours, why we bust our ass and work late and on weekends: to increase our chances of meeting The Genie.  Because the encounter is never guaranteed.

Meeting The Genie is akin to a raffle. Do nothing, you have no chance.  Buy one ticket, you have one chance.  Buy 100 tickets, and you increase your probability 100-fold.  It's rare that The Genie will come to you. So do the work.  The math is simple.  It's the black-box outcome process that's complicated.

So this is why we market.  And keep marketing.  And why VCs still invest.  And why entrepreneurs bleed, sweat and cry.  All an attempt to meet our version of The Genie. 

You know, to be very frank with you all, that's why I wrote this blog post. 

I've had this idea kicking around my head for weeks.  I spent a couple of late Saturday hours putting it into words.  Now that it's done, I put it out there.  So, will it be an influential post, passed around virally, hailed for its wisdom?  Will it spark debate and a legion of followers?  Will the concept become part of the marketing lexicon? 

Or will it be ignored...amusing a small audience slightly before they go onto their next blog in search of entertainment and enlightenment?

Let's see.

Let's test the theory.

Let's see if this post finds its Genie.

Finders, Eaters: The Kogi Phenomenon

Twitter may be the tactical tool.

But other than the food itself, the success of Kogi is reliant on Surprise.

Don't think you'd get the same reaction if this were tucked into assorted strip malls...

Surprise--The Highest Common Denominator of Apple and Google

Tomorrow's the day. 

Pow! rocks the bay.

Brian Caulfield writes in Forbes about the anxiously-awaited Surprises from the always-Surprising Apple at its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco tomorrow.  Says he:

"Apple has nudged expectations for its Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco Monday so low that anything would be a surprise--which is exactly where Apple wants us to be.

"That's because Apple isn't in the computer business, it's in show business. The only question: What act are we in?"

Brilliant. In more ways than one, Steve Jobs and co. are after my heart.  Delivering a consistent flow of Surprise. Constantly expanding the boundaries of delightful extremes. Generating the Battle Cry of Surprise, namely "What Will They Think of Next?" As Caulfield goes on to explain:

"As always, however, the question with Apple is always when, not what. An Apple tablet or an Apple television probably won't be ready by next week. Then again, if it is, that would be a surprise, even though everyone already knew it was coming. And that's exactly what Apple wants."

So let's see what transpires...

By the way, Apple ain't the only digital behemoth exploiting the power of Surprise.  Take a gander at the opening minutes of Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra's intro of Google Wave.  Man, if the word "Surprise" was the F-bomb, this would be like watching an episode of The Sopranos:

Tom Peters Kicks My Ass (Turning The Tables)

One of the landmark moments for any teacher is when he or she is "surpassed" and learns something from one of his or her students.

This is what makes Paul Williams' recent coup-de-grace so wonderful.  Turning the Surprise tables on yours truly, the head of the Idea Sandbox marketing consultancy (and the author of this stunning blog), Paul asked this somewhat hackneyed question as the grand finale of his email interview for my oft-mentioned (and hopefully incessantly-purchased) Pow! book:

7) Finally, what's the question you already have an answer to that hasn't been asked, and you wish it had?

Oh Christ!  That's how I used to end interviews with rockstars like Peter Frampton and Kiss and Emerson, Lake & Palmer (ask your parents, kids) when I was a teenage journalist.  Their answers were usually wordless, communicated via a vacant look.  I had to do better.  So, I said:

Well, there's this one. (Meaning his question #7) 

And I always liked the answer: "To a standing ovation in Carnegie Hall, with a cast of 17, following a rambunctious night in a suite at the Plaza." 

I'll leave it up to you to formulate the appropriate question.

I left it at that, thinking it would be left there as is.  Imagine my Surprise then, when Paul deftly picked up the gauntlet I had tossed, and constructed the following: 

 

What more can I say than: "Touche."  And "Ouch." 

But I must admit...it hurst so good!

Fannin' The Flames of Relationship-Building (90 Seconds At A Time)

I admire Jim Fannin as a professional and as a person.  Hard not to.  Here's a guy who looks at least 15 years younger than his age, thinks with the wisdom of someone 25 years older and is so continually positive it's hard to talk to him without being infected by, or envious of, it (then there's always asking him what he's on).

The renowned motivator, "Zone Coach" and head-coach to myriad corporate giants and sports stars (to his credit, he's one of the few people who emerged unscathed from the current bio of former client Alex Rodriguez), Jim has just launched a simple yet profound new relationship-building concept, and an audacious way to promote it.

In a nutshell, Jim's "90-Second Rule" stiplulates that the first minute-and-a-half of any personal encounter is its tipping point; as he puts it:

“If you‘ve been away from someone you care about or love for at least two hours, the first 90 seconds that you see them has more impact on the relationship than spending hours with them later on."

Taken one step further, being conscious of his 90-Second Rule can positively affect the numerous relationships that engulf us; the soul's version of "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," I suppose.

Well, the book's coming soon(he's working with super-agent Bill Gladstone), and in the meantime, Jim has put together this site, the film below, as well as a contest with a grand prize check of $25,000 to whoever provides the most compelling video testimonial to the principles outlined in the 90-Second Rule.

Details here, and now off to work and see if the 90-Second Rule works on the staff at Airborne Mobile.  All I have to do is get them to actually listen to me for 90 seconds...

Half A Partridge Family

Saw this while in Boston last Saturday.  In town to pick up my son Hayes and catch a Red Sox game at Fenway, I stumbled across this trio playing in Faneuil Hall:

Mom and two sons in the well-branded and very aptly-named College Fund Band.  Throughout their lengthy set of pop classics, Mom maintained a steady presence on keyboards and the two boys bounced back between vocals, guitar and drums; think the Partridge Family in a recession. While CFB won't challenge Coldplay, AC/DC or Green Day for live tour receipts this summer, safe to say that this is a novel, heartwarming (and as the less-than-perfect video below shows, quite successful) way to accomplish a very positive and simply-stated goal.  Truth in advertising indeed!

More fun than spending weekends working in a fast-food joint or factory (not to say that either boy is old enough to do even that), not only do I think that this will raise the funds necessary, but will probably raise enough awareness for a scholarship at some business (or music) school...or at least for an appearance or two on a talk-show (seems perfect for a 10:00 p.m. Leno).

Update on June 22:  Ignore my beef below; "Mom," namely Debbie Gantt, reached out (see comment below) and assured that the site www.collegefundband.com is now up and running.  Read more about her, Jack and Dan by clicking the link above, or checking out this piece from the Boston Globe.

That said, my only beef is the emptiness--and I do mean that literally--of the trio's website.  Flashed full-frontal on the bass drum, www.collegefundband.com leads you only to a static silhouette logo, so I can't even tell you the names of these people. Nonetheless, I hope Mom has another kid at home--or at least a cousin, niece or nephew--with a modicum of web-savvy to improve their digital presence...and their potential to raise funds.

All that said, kudos to the kids for doing something so upbeat, and to Mom for knowing where her kids are on the weekend.  The family that plays together rasises together...

Unthinkable Surprise...

Finished the magnificent Joshua Cooper Ramo tome "The Age of the Unthinkable" over the weekend, and although sometimes our political views clashed, we were 100% synchronized in the vision of our future. 

In a sea of brilliance, here's one of my favorite quotes...particularly apropos to the headspace at Surprise Central:

"We owe everything to human creativity.  Everything that lasts, that changes our lives, that emerges from what was once unimaginable, has its roots in that initial spark of innovation. 

"What we need now is a way to spread the capacity for peer production of our own future. We need a global order in which those 'irrational' forces of invention and surprise...can be used to improve the parts of the world in which we can't seem to make progress."

...and Surprisingly Eccentric

I always knew that author (if you haven't read "My Start-Up Life," you should), blogger (if you don't read his, you should) and entrepreneur (if you haven't invested in him...well, you get my point) Ben Casnocha was bright. 

But with this post, he proves to be a bright kindred spirit.  The full monty over here (thanks Fitzy!), excerpts below:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Capacity to Surprise

One of my favorite questions to ask people is, "What do you look for in a person?"

One friend recently gave an interesting answer: he looks for people who can surprise him. He said that if someone doesn't surprise him, he doesn't get a sense of the person's presence.

I'd have to agree: there's nothing more boring than a person whose sentences you feel you can finish every time. Or who fits squarely into a stereotype such that 90% of their beliefs perfectly align with a broader political or religious label.

What I usually answer to the question which opened this post, when I'm choosing friends, romantic partners, or conversation companions, is "eccentricity." I like eccentric people. They're usually very fun. They are unique, like keys. And they regularly surprise me.

One of my favorite questions to ask people is, "What do you look for in a person?"

One friend recently gave an interesting answer: he looks for people who can surprise him. He said that if someone doesn't surprise him, he doesn't get a sense of the person's presence.

I'd have to agree: there's nothing more boring than a person whose sentences you feel you can finish every time. Or who fits squarely into a stereotype such that 90% of their beliefs perfectly align with a broader political or religious label.

What I usually answer to the question which opened this post, when I'm choosing friends, romantic partners, or conversation companions, is "eccentricity." I like eccentric people. They're usually very fun. They are unique, like keys. And they regularly surprise me.