Kindle conundrum

The funny thing about the Kindle is that I have no idea how long books are.

I've just finished Alison Weir's The Six Wives of Henry VIII. Over breakfasts, bedtimes and while waiting for meetings to start, I finished it in just a few weeks. It felt like a pretty long book, or at least it covered a lot of information, from Wife 1: Katherine of Aragon to Wife 6: Katherine Parr, so I'm kind of proud that I finished it. Okay I am a lot proud! (This is one of the first non-business, non-fiction books I've ever read.)

The thing is, I can't be sure how valid my feelings are. The Kindle doesn't show page numbers, only page "locations" - I imagine this is because pagination changes depending on selected text size. So I have no idea how long the book actually is, and as a result, how accomplished I should feel about finishing it.

Book Completion pride
I never realized this until this Kindle problem came about but I think I feel different levels of pride or accomplishment depending on the type and length of book I've read. So to speak...

Frustration!
So I feel like I've completed something quite voluminous... though maybe it falls more squarely under Non-Fiction. But I definitely feel a sense of accomplishment. But it really frustrates me that the Kindle does not give me the satisfaction of knowing that I've read something long and hardy. As a result I wonder if the pride I feel for finishing this book could actually be misplaced.

To get to the bottom of this, I went back to Amazon to find a photo of the actual book, where I was disappointed to find only an image of the book cover. Bah.

Level of pride affirmed.
But upon browsing the Customer Images I found a photo of Weir's Henry VIII set, including (on the far right) The Six Wives.

Am relieved to see that the book looks positively serious, and as I assumed, quite "voluminous". Also the old-school binding makes it look completely bona fide!









Vicious cycle
So I have some ill feelings toward my Kindle since it doesn't allow me to feel as certain a level of accomplishment and satisfaction upon completing a long, real book.

This seems to be a digital shortcoming - when things are made of bits, bytes, ones and zeroes, how do we know what, or how much, we are really holding in our hands?

Then again I also wonder, given ownership of the physical volume, if I ever would have finished the book. Would I have brought it with me to the breakfast table, held it up every night before sleeping, and lugged it around in my bag in case of lull times at work? Probably not. Point, Kindle.

I also tend to get intimidated by said voluminous works. I think I get pressured by books that look long since it seems like it will take awhile to read them. In fact, while I just bought the Kindle edition of Jon Steel's Truth, Lies, and Advertising: The Art of Account Planning and have barely started into reading it, a fellow planner showed me her real-life edition of the same book - thick and hardy! I now feel a little like I won't be able to finish it. Who knows.

Oh digital world, when will you stop changing the rules of the game on us.

YouTube & Twitter show-and-tell

Monetization - the ultimate challenge for web platform hopefuls. Once they've reached critical mass, how to make money? The most obvious answer is to offer some form of web advertising, whether display or Google Ad Words.

But given the increasing banner blindness in consumers everywhere, social media sites like YouTube and Twitter need to show advertisers that deeper engagement can be achieved through their platforms. After all, credibility is an imperative for real communication or persuasion.


To help advertisers see how they can play a role in this, YouTube has launched a Show & Tell channel that showcases best-in-class case studies. Users can browse the latest in Interactive Videos, Brand Channels, Homepages & Viral Hits. The Creatives' Corner is hosted by the Art Directors Club and includes materials on storytelling, viral videos, opportunities, etc.

Twitter is also showcasing their most maximized accounts, but going less branded. Twitter Tales asks "How do you use Twitter?" and shares content in the categories of Life, Community and Humor.
I really like this effort, especially after attending the New York chapter of the 140Conference last Spring, where teachers, NGOs, TV personalities, humanitarians, musicians, comedians, and more shared their best uses of the real-time web (mostly not branded!).

mccann answers mad men

I wasn't sure what to make of Ken Cosgrove's dig at McCann Erickson in the latest Mad Men episode except to think that there aren't very many old school agencies that hold as much clout then as it does now. Besides that, well, I guess there are probably ignoramuses everywhere and somebody acquired in a hostile takeover would be the first to notice point it out.

But in the spirit of competition?, here is McCann's reply.



More from NYMag and the Times.

law of diminishing productivity

The longer you work, the less productive you are!

In celebration of all my recent overtime!

open....

This week was crazy. Insane. Impossible. Sick.
But things worked out somehow.

I think we're finding our groove.  I'm getting better perspective.

So before anything else happens I want to write that this is great. Best mood ever.

photo by Buttersweet - PLEASE REMEMBER OUR FRIENDS IN CHILE	via PhotoRee

Inception for Marketers... and Planners

Inception resonated with me because it hit on many of the challenges I face as an advertiser. Characters in the film mentioned inspiration, ideas and creation, which advertising folks tackle everyday.

The Team

In a new kind of corporate espionage, Leonardo di Caprio's Dom enters people's subconscious (so marketing-aptly referred to as "targets") to extract guarded bits of information. A challenge is posed to him by Saito (Ken Watanabe), a leading energy trader with a unique request: "If you can steal an idea from someone's mind, why can't you plant one?".

The idea is controversial even for other characters in the film. "True inspiration is impossible to fake," asserts Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Dom's long-time partner. But of course Dom accepts because [see film for sub-plot], and puts his team together by recruiting an architect, a forger and a chemist. Enter charming (but manly walker) Ellen Page, very hot Tom Hardy and Dileep Rao.

The Brief

Saito briefs them on the task at hand: a strong competitor is about to take a monopoly on energy trading. This competition is a family-run business threatening to buy Saito out. The only way to prevent this is to target the magnate's son and convince him to split up the empire, which he is soon to inherit since dad is about to kick the bucket.

The Strategy

My favorite scene in the film is when the team gets together to discuss their strategy - how to translate a bigger business issue into an idea that will take root? I loved this part since it felt  similar to the process of strategic planning in advertising.

When we start a new project, we outline the objective and target market then try to figure out an insight that will make our brand or product resonate. Another major part of the strategy is the Engagement Plan - this echoes the journey we would like to take the consumer on for their path to purchase. The plan is usually split up into phases, each with a different objective: e.g. Awareness, Trial, Loyalty, and corresponding messaging or executions.

This is an important tool since consumers increasingly need to be remidned of a brand or product's relevance in their lives. This is often a lengthy process that requires many phases of communication to increase the brand's relevance on many different layers. Just like in the film, there are often barriers that each layer has to address before a brand or idea will truly adhere.

The Engagement Plan

My favorite, favorite part was when Eames (again, the hot Tom Hardy) was taking the team through his thinking on how to reduce the complex outcome (of splitting up father's empire) into a much simpler idea. I imagine that if Saito, as the "client" had asked for a one-pager summing up the task at hand and executional phases, it would have looked something like this:




***SPOILER ALERT***
Inception EP

What do you think?!

I imagine that other advertisers and planners would have noticed that intersection of the concepts in the film with the meat of our daily professional lives - the art of persuasion.