Great post on Eyecube on branding and the development of a DINU (deeply immersive narrative universe). Thought it was a good exercise to imagine how DINU might work for current and future clients. In a world of constant content creation and sharing this will start to get traction. Key paragraphs from post below. The entire post is here.

“…Obama has embraced the concept of consumer generation. Each time he does so, he gives permission for someone else to build new parts of his DINU. How revolutionary is that for a political candidate? Where are the spin masters and handlers, managing his every word and image? How can they let this happen? Because they have accepted and embraced it as part of his narrative. This is so powerful and a big reason he is in the position that he is in right now. Yes, people bought in to him, but he bought in to them just as much, and in doing so he strengthened and grew his Deeply Immersive Narrative Universe.”

Barack Obama has created a DINU not only delivering a consistent message across a variety of channels, but by laying the foundation for others to build upon it. In that way he is comparable to George Lucas, who built the Star Wars universe that has been so richly developed by others.

Last December, instead of buying gifts and printing/sending holiday greeting cards, APcomm made a donation, on behalf of our clients, partners and friends, to One Laptop per Child (OLPC), the innovative educational program created by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte.

In 2008 One Laptop per Child is taking a big leap from pilot program to large-scale national execution.

This week, teachers from remote rural villages in Peru are gathering in several regional cities to learn how to do their jobs via One Laptop per Child (OLPC) machines distributed to their pupils. Peru is now engaging in the world’s most ambitious OLPC deployment: some 400,000 machines are headed to the Andean nation’s poorest and remotest schools–about 6,000 schools in all.

Link to rest of article on how OLPC is working in Peru here.

We’d like to thank all of our clients, partners and friends for their continued support. And we’ll keep you updated on OLPC’s progress in 2008.

Ran into some clever examples of barcode design in Japan. Nice to be reminded how even a mundane detail like a barcode can be reimagined to have an impact on your brand and marketing. Just when you think nothing else can be done, there is always something engaging and relevant hiding just under the horizon (or your nose).

Link to Japanese design firm that developed these here.

IT can get downright vicious in cubicle nation. Cleaning up my desktop this morning I ran into a great blog post on marketing, specifically escaping cubicle nation via starting and marketing your own gig. The post below applies to the individual, but also to the larger organization. Imagine if everyone at your company/organization put the post below into practice…

At any rate, there’s some great tips on marketing yourself and/or your company once you’ve made a run for it.

I’ve copied the entire posting below, don’t remember where I found it…so hat tip to the author, Pam, wherever you are.

Cheers.

Are you acting like a celebrity sheep with your marketing plans?
The business model for the young and glamorous has gotten very clear to me:

1. Go somewhere to “be discovered” for your good looks and fabulous abs
2. Become a famous model or dancer
3. Start acting
4. Have some really public, screwed up relationships and get married and divorced a few times
5. Record a CD
6. Start a clothing line
7. Create a signature perfume

If your career is long enough, you can probably add:

8. Get addicted to drugs
9. Go to rehab
10. Pitch beauty products on QVC

Can you say JLo, Usher, Jessica Simpson and Britney Spears?

Each day, the list of celebrities launching perfume lines gets longer.

Frankly, it is boring.

Because it has become the “thing to do,” it doesn’t stand out anymore. As I was doing a bit of poking around about this subject, I learned that I am not alone in my observations, since the perfume sector thinks there is celebrity overkill too.

Here is how this phenomenon relates to the rest of us non-glamorous mortals (maybe I should speak for myself - some of you may be busy launching perfume lines without me knowing it):

If you are new to business marketing, you will find that for many areas of specialty, especially in the services business, there is a prescribed path:

1. Identify your target market
2. Start an ezine so you can build a mailing list
3. Create a free report to entice people on your list
4. Write articles and submit them to directories
5. Start a blog
6. Create infoproducts
7. Write really long sales letters
8. Conduct teleclasses and group workshops
9. Connect up with important people for joint ventures
10. Implement SEO techniques on your website
11. Write a book
12. Hit the speaking circuit
13. Charge $5,000 a day for the same thing you used to charge $200 for
14. Create an exclusive weekend workshop where you hobnob with your starstruck clients at exotic locations

You’ve seen all this, right?

There is a good reason why these prescribed marketing techniques are so popular: they work.

But here is the important caveat: They work for the right people in the right situations.

Two perfectly capable coaches could implement all these steps and come out with wildly different results. The reason?

* For Coach #1, this process fits with her natural interests and abilities, she enjoys doing it, she has something unique and important to share and her enthusiasm is genuine. My friend Philippa Kennealy is a good example of this with her business The Entrepreneurial MD. A former MD-turned-coach, she has built her business step by step, doing all the “right things” from a marketing perspective. As she puts in each new piece of infrastructure, she learns from expert mentors and is disciplined and rigorous in her testing, implementation and delivery. The right clients find her, and love her, because she does excellent work. Frankly, she makes me sick she is so productive, but that is just jealousy talking.

* For Coach #2, this process feels awkward, uncomfortable and disingenuous. She does it because she thinks she “has to,” and hates every minute of it. I have certainly seen examples of this, but I don’t think it would be kind to call them out to all my readers (Can you imagine being the person who gets an incoming link based on your site sucking so bad?). Let me just say you know who you are. And I want to help put you out of your misery, because doing a bunch of stuff that you hate because it is what you think you should do is worse than being an opressed cube dweller.

So what is the alternative if you are repelled by the thought of doing the “right things?”

1. Before rejecting any model, you must learn it. Do not mix up discomfort at doing something new with aversion to doing it at all. Remember the conscious competence learning model,and how you have to “stumble the mumble” before you “walk the talk.” I will put my list of recommended marketing reading at the end of this post.

It is like someone inviting you to an Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. You have never had the food before, but you know you have to eat with your hands, and that kind of freaks you out. Instead of just refusing to go, try it once. Then try it again, at a different restaurant with a different friend. You may find that Ethiopian food cooked by anyone anywhere isn’t for you. Or, you could be like Sam I Am’s friend and find that once you finally try it, you actually like Green Eggs and Ham.

2. Choose a couple of marketing methods and really work them. Your criteria for selection should be A) has the greatest likelihood of getting you the results you want and B) is the most fun and energizing to do.

A great example is Hello, My Name is Scott, known as “That Nametag Guy.” He took a simple marketing technique, wearing a nametag, and worked and worked and worked it into a mini-marketing empire. The mainstream press ate it up, and now he has a much broader platform as a personal branding expert with books and big-time speaking engagements.

My one-trick pony is blogging, and I have found that it is a perfect way to stay energized when marketing my business while sharing information with the people I care most about. Sure I need to do some more marketing activities, and I will. But for now, blogging works for me.
3. Don’t be afraid to do something different. If every coach or software developer or financial adviser on your block is utilizing the same marketing technique and it is bland and boring, cook up something new.

Angelina Jolie, although checking off a few points on the celebrity business model list (multiple screwed up relationships, anyone?), took a left turn when instead of launching a perfume line, became an honorary U.N.Ambassador. I get the feeling that she did this not as a buzz-building technique, but because she really cares.

In the same vein, goth rocker Marilyn Manson is launching a perfume and cosmetics line. I know, I know, it is a perfume and cosmetics line. But it is kind of interesting because Marilyn Manson is doing it. Aren’t you simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by what he will come up with? (As an example, I was going to link to his site, but it is so totally horrifying that I couldn’t bring myself to do it. View at your own risk)

Just remember, there is nothing wrong with following a well-established formula if it feels genuine and works for you. If it doesn’t, go with your gut and choose a way of getting the word out about yourself that is real, exciting and sustaining. By doing so, you just may find yourself miles ahead of the herd.

Finally, here are the marketing books and resources I have gotten great value from. Read them, take what you like and toss the rest.

Duct Tape Marketing by John Jantsch
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port
Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
Multiple Streams of Coaching Income by Andrea Lee
Robert Middleton’s Infoguru Marketing Manual

There are more, but this is a good start. (I used affiliate links)

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Posted by Pam at 02:42 PM | Permalink